Reaction: United vs Arsenal
Ji-Sung Park’s clever header separated the two sides but the gulf in belief and goal threat was far greater. Heaven help the rest when United really click.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s men visit Chelsea on Sunday for the next leg of this fascinating, if flawed title race.
Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur also harbour Premier League ambitions but there is something about United in this mood, canny and controlled, that should worry all their rivals. The unbeaten run will end at some point but United exude the confidence and experience of being able to set off on another run.
Ignore the scoreline. United were head and shoulders above Arsenal, physically so when Park rose in front of the sluggish Sebastien Squillaci to settle the game it was not unexpected.
The familiarity of the result was even more significant than the victory that put Manchester United two points clear in the Premier League with a game in hand. Arsenal were unable to disentangle themselves from the clichés that are as accurate as they are familiar. The visitors achieved a pattern for a spell in the second half but the winners could usually study it without much apprehension.
Indeed the margin would have been greater had Wayne Rooney not been so wild with a questionable penalty. Home advantage helps but there is still a broader range to United. Arsenal, for all their grace and fluency, could not impose themselves enough on opponents who were steely and, often enough, polished. That limitation should have been anticipated.
Jim White: Manchester United players dig deep to see off Arsenal and give rescued Chilean miners night to remember. The Daily Telegraph
The joke doing the rounds before kick off was that, while in Manchester, Manchester United's special guests had been offered the opportunity to look round City's trophy room.
They had politely declined, saying they had spent enough time recently in dark, dingy, empty spaces.
The South Americans had been invited by Bobby Charlton, in a moment of working class solidarity. Charlton comes from a family of miners and when he heard that several of the Chileans favoured his club, had extended the invite.
Though, this being Old Trafford in 2010, there was inevitably a commercial edge to the trip; all expenses had been covered by an organisation described over the stadium public address system as United's "international Chilean wine partners". And every modern football club needs some of those.
Taking up a position in the directors' box behind Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson, who has himself been in something of a hole these past few months, the suited and booted Chileans had apparently dreamt of this moment when underground.
Videoing everything that moved around them, what had kept them going was the thought of experiencing the frenetic excitement of an English Premier League encounter.
And they were not to be disappointed. Always a spicy fixture, this was a game that cracked and fizzed throughout. Entirely devoid of Christmas spirit, it was a display of full hearted, full speed football of the most gripping kind.
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