For Arsenal, Victory Never Tasted So Sweet

Just when everyone thought that Arsenal was down and out, they responded in unison.

A hard fought and unified display against Manchester United showed that Arsenal's season is far from over.

Instead, it has just begun.

A stunning screamer from Samir Nasri showed why Arsenal paid 12 million pounds for this talented youngster. Nasri finally justified his price tag with his performance today—it was arguably the best since he arrived at the Emirates.

Before the match, I called on Cesc Fabregas to shoulder the burden of restoring Arsenal's season. Not only did Fabregas do so, Nasri showed that he could be depended upon as well. 

It was a tense and nervy game, yet a game that was absorbing and entertaining, all at the same time. 

Manchester United was undoubtedly out to capitalize on Arsenal's recent poor form. 

My assertion that Mikael Silvestre is a Man Utd spy sent to infiltrate Arsenal's camp gained further weight when he made a criminal sloppy back pass to Manuel Almunia with barely two minutes on the clock. Almunia somehow fell for Silvestre's trick and accepted the back pass gratefully into his gloves.

The ensuing free kick in the penalty area was nerve-wrecking stuff.

Arsenal managed to recover from that howler and started taking the game to Man Utd.

The passing continued to encapsulate the nature of Arsenal. Despite having a morale that was in the pits, Arsenal simply could not stop playing the way they always have.

Nothing was more fancy than scoring the perfect goal. Regardless if it was going to cost the whole Emirates stadium to turn on them when things went wrong.  

Manchester United were certainly no pushovers and it wasn't until Nasri struck the opening goal that Arsenal fans could stop gripping on to their seats. 

It was a beauty of a strike that left the ineffectual Gary Neville watching helplessly as the shot took a deflection of him, before whizzing into the back of the net. 

Oh how Arsenal needed that goal to lift the mood around the Emirates. The roar of relief was palpable.

The second half brought an even brighter smile to Arsenal fans.

After exchanging 15 passes which left the Man Utd players totally bewildered, Nasri hammered home a strike that would be worthy of a goal of the season contention.

Fabregas set him up for the final ball and Nasri needed no second invitation to pound the ball pass the helpless Edwin Van Der Sar.

Arsenal were two up, yet the niggling 'We F***-ed it up against Spurs' feeling did not go away.

Arsenal was in the lead, but could they maintain it?

The side of the club that came out against Man. U today wasn't going to make that same mistake.

A committed, all action performance saw Arsene Wenger even-throwing on Alex Song, and finally Kolo Toure to make sure that the gate was slammed shut.

It was obvious that Wenger was never going to allow that farce against Spurs to happen again.

Yet, like that big bad wolf in the fairy tale 'The Three Little Pigs,' United kept blowing and blowing.

And it almost toppled the brick house, when Rafael chested and struck a beauty of a shot pass the reserve goalkeeper, Lukasz Fabianski.

Alas, like all fairy tales, this had got to have a happy ending.

As Arsenal fans chewed off whatever was left of their fingernails, the referee blew the full time whistle, which was definitely sweet melody for Arsenal fans' ears.

Rafael's strike proved only to be a staccato in this fluid Arsenal performance.

Sure, Almunia got kicked in the face—Nicklas Bendtner is better suited for the Rugby Union. 

But who cares. 

Nasri's two lovely strikes has finally laid the ghost of that Tottenham Hotspur debacle to eternal rest.