United 4 - 2 Arsenal

The scoreboard says it all

I forced myself to sleep early last night ( 12am ) just to be able to wake up at 4am to watch the thriller at Highbury. And what a thriller it was. The match threatened to boil over even before the kick-off with a bust-up between Keane and Vieira. Thankfully, that did not spill over into the match.

Arsenal, being the home team, took the early initiative and didn't allow us any space to settle down. They were rewarded with a rather "soft goal" scored by Patrick Vieira in the 8th minute from a corner. Vieira didn't even have to jump ! Then, a mistake by Campbell, an impressive cross by Scholes, a sumptuous flick-on by Rooney and a deflected shot by Giggs brought us the equaliser.


Bye-bye Cygan !
At this stage, I was confident that we would go on to score the winner. But somehow, Arsenal took the lead again through Bergkamp ( who I thought was Arse's best player of the day ), firing low through Carroll's legs.Half-time, the score was 2-1 to the Arsenal.



Thats 2-2 !

I still wasn't worried because I knew, we had the spirit and character to come back from being a goal down. Ronaldo's goal 10 minutes after half-time proved me right. Then, 4 minutes later, in a scene exactly like in FIFA 2005, ( where I always go head-to-head with my bro ), Almunia felt that the goal-mouth was too boring and decided to take a walk to his left-hand side. Sensing the wonderful oppurtunity, Giggs floated in the cross and was easily tapped-in to the empty net from 3 inches out by Ronaldo. I jumped for joy not only because we are in the lead but the simplicity of the goal resembles the one I use to score against my brother in FIFA 2005.


Hey, we're winning !

Silvestre's moment of madness came when he uncharacteristically shoved Bergkamp into the ground an headbutted Ljungberg which earned him a straight red card. Even Queiroz and Fergie agreed that the red card was deserved.
Left with only 10 men, Arsenal decided to camp in our half, desperately looking for the equaliser.

Unguarded at the back, we finally delivered the final blow in the 88th minute when John O'Shea chipped the most of sublime of chips, curling the ball slowly into the North Bank goal.

4-2, this is certainly the most satisfying victory I've ever experienced. Thrashing and outplaying Arsenal in their own ground.