Manchester Utd...0 Arsenal...2With 19 minutes left, Alex Ferguson decided that Manchester United's best chance of a comeback lay in replacing Ryan Giggs. There were many years when that decision would have seemed dotty, so often was the winger's lightning pace at the centre of elemental storms of attacking football. These days his personal weather is overcast with occasional drizzle.
The open goal that he missed while this match was scoreless will haunt Giggs, but other thoughts must now keep Ferguson awake. Peter Kenyon, United's chief executive, has implied that the manager will soon extend his own contract that was to expire in 2005. He will find plenty to occupy him.
Ferguson torments himself with the thought that a group that has achieved so much may have put their best days behind them. Giggs has become a test case and the speculation persists of a new start at, say, Internazionale.
When he wafted the ball over the bar, after beating both David Seaman and Sol Campbell, those with a pagan faith in the FA Cup imagined there had been some celestial bookkeeping. If Giggs was unassailable while scoring the winner against Arsenal in the FA Cup semi-final four years ago, maybe that had to be balanced by an afternoon as a klutz.
Arsenal are now the side who believe that the future is full of thrills rather than duties.
This is not a question of age. Martin Keown is 36 but last season's Double took his medal count at Highbury to only four and there was nothing jaded about him against United.
His one error, when his studs caught in the turf, saw David Beckham's pass reach Giggs, but the centre-half was otherwise overwhelming and precise.
United doubt themselves against Arsenal. You could sense it in their overheated start to the game, with its whiff of panic. Ferguson alleged that the visitors had "bullied" the referee with their mass complaints, but the manager's only grievance about such behaviour must concern breach of copyright. Was it not United who used to corner officials?
By drumming up a controversy Ferguson was engaging in diversionary tactics. Three of the four bookings were for United players and Van Nistelrooy could have been sent off. When United got the better of Arsenal at Old Trafford in December, the aggression was disciplined and legitimate. On Saturday they had no self-control in the opening phase.
Deep down they know that it is Arsene Wenger's team who are capable of the purer football and were much superior. While Thierry Henry had a restful afternoon as a substitute, the superb Patrick Vieira not only directed the game but also remembered to support the unusual attacking partnership of Sylvain Wiltord and Francis Jeffers.
He went forward in the perfect confidence that Edu would mind the midfield ably. Edu was the essence of reliability, even if it took the waywardness of a deflection from Beckham's shoulder to land his free-kick in the net after 35 minutes.
Direction was under his sole command; 12 minutes into the second half he laid an imaginative, angled pass into the path of Wiltord's run. The forward had already sneaked away from Rio Ferdinand and after dodging Wes Brown he wrong-footed Fabien Barthez with his finish.
Guardian Service
MANCHESTER UNITED: Barthez, Gary Neville, Ferdinand, Brown, Silvestre, Beckham (Butt 83), Scholes, Keane, Giggs (Forlan 71), van Nistelrooy, Solskjaer. Subs Not Used: Ricardo, Phil Neville, O'Shea. Booked: Scholes, van Nistelrooy, Keane.
ARSENAL: Seaman, Lauren, Keown, Campbell, Cole, Parlour, Vieira, Edu, Pires (van Bronckhorst 84), Jeffers (Henry 73), Wiltord (Toure 90). Subs Not Used: Warmuz, Cygan. Booked: Vieira. Goals: Edu 34, Wiltord 52.
Referee: J Winter (Cleveland).
