The Ben white thing was odd. He looked lethargic and not at the races today. He’s been such a staunch performer but I was half expecting him to be subbed at half time or before

What a fantastic performance and win , the boys were brilliant , I’m really starting to believe we might do it

Just to remind you , it’s Bernard’s memorial tomorrow , I’ve produced an Arsenal / forum tribute photo which I’ll present to the family , and will post on here in a few days

Absolutely looked an Arsenal player. I liked the way he tracked back and helped win the ball back as much as that run past 5 players

Only a short cameo but he looks a player that can provide genuine competition and depth

Won’t somebody do something about that man! Ten Hag Outside his technical area

Thanks Pete

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I waited till the game had finished , looked up the result , then watched the game , Stops me raving full bore at the screen Oh Partey you plonker , FFS Zinchenko stop being so casual , Ramsdale let Tomiyasu head the f***&^ .

That result was in some ways better than an outright 4 - 0 drubbing because it builds team spirit and resilience .

Nice to see Jesus lifting someone off the ground in the celebrations so hopefully he'll be back soon .

Wish Trossard had got a few more minutes , he looked sharp [ better than Mudryk ]

Bottom line we made quite a few errors but still won ; the potential in this squad is awesome .

Love this photo. Gabriel is our unsung hero this year. So good in the big high pressure games. He rises to the challenge

Highlighting Gary Neville’s complete blind spot on all things Arsenal again. This is what he said about us signing Zinchenko

Offer Saka 400k a week.

Honestly you can’t replace that. City will be desperate to get him.

Eddie is our top scorer with 9. *%^@*** immense. So much respect to that boy, beating the odds his whole career. Steely.

MOTD highlighting Casemiro missing….I don’t recall any analysis of us missing Partey when they beat us earlier in the season.

And we’re sharing the goals around. Compare that to City where Haaland has 25! People laughed at us when Jesus got injured, but perhaps we’re showing we’re far less drawing on an individual than City certainly are

It’s funny how pundits have been talking up Man U for the title in recent weeks. They’ve been impressive but they were still a long way back. And yet they unanimously say we’ll get reeled in by City?

To be fair I’m quite happy for the ‘City will reel you in’ talk to continue.

Saw this online
I can’t recall the last time anyone called Arsenal “soft”, “naive”, “too nice” or “easy to bully”. Arteta has been so transformative

I think the catalyst for this is Xhaka

I was a big critic but MA has turned him around. His discipline in this team is only one of many reasons why we are having a great season but highly significant
Keeping the Xhaka Thomas tandem going is critical to the next 19 games.

I’m glad that I don’t get the Sky Sports feed over here. I’m reading Keane’s and Neville’s comments
Now admittedly I hate the pair of them so treat my post with that in mind but the way they go on about the United way….they think Utd have a god given right to be top of the pops every year…and they look at it through that prism..be realistic accept you’ve pretty much f…ed up the last 5/7 years. Football success is cyclical..f me I can remember Utd getting relegated

Keane is a dog…a f..ing dirty player and Neville is an average right back who got lucky in being at the right place at the right time
Sorry this rant is in no small part caused by me opening (and drinking) a highly agreeable bottle of Meursault

What a day…what a week…beating Spurs and Utd in one week ah man life is great

I'd have been more than happy to have that same dog playing for Arsenal instead of United .

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Amazing the difference in views , just spent ten minutes reading the Man U reaction on Red Cafe .... some saying we are a lucky bunch of Tory supporting scum
get all our goals via jammy deflections while others professing we are far and away the best team in the league and no shame to have lost to us .

A lot of Utd fans are sore losers. In their mind they are still the best ever.

That is a great idea. A man, who I never met , but who I miss on the forum every day. It is amazing when you think of the world we were born into (1956) and how restricted communication was, and compare it to now where regular contributions come from all ends of the world. And all of us sharing a common interest.

I think the errors are partly because we are trying to stick with the gameplan and play through the press, which United did very well before they went ahead and again when it was 2-1.

But ... they couldn't do it for the whole 90, and reverted to camping out in their penalty area and hanging on by the skin of their teeth.

Trossard is a lovely player to deploy against those tactics. He and Zinchenko could be regarded as safepickers! Who needs a sledgehammer?

Great stuff, Pete. Thanks.

Imagine how Bernard would have enjoyed yesterday's game!

Surreal seeing Fabregas and Keane on the same set. Have Arsenal fans forgiven Fabregas?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsGguO4UKMY&t=163s

Such an odious character Fernandes. He gave a dirty little kick after he and Gabriel had come together which was of course not seen by anybody. Then charging down the ref trying to get a penalty for a dive and feigning a head injury to waste time. Just a dirty cheat and it was so good to get the winner at the death just to rub his face in it.

Also was fearing the worst when Fergie decided to make an appearance but so glad that he can go home unhappy too.

The FA cup tie is tricky in terms of mentality. I am thinking 2 things. Title and a Europa cup final. I'd love to win the FA cup and extend our record in it but not at the expense of being physically and mentally drained. If we lose big it shakes our confidence for our league games against them.

City will have to push for a win in both our league games. It's going to be a chess game on who each team fields for the cup tie. City have the deeper squad. Arteta has the more difficult job on who to play, who to rest and still give his team a chance to win.

Years ago I thought we fielded a team to lose at Man Utd in the FA cup, I think it was 2003? Not sure and we ended up winning it (Giggs shockingly missed an open goal). I think it was the game Ferguson kicked a boot and gave Becks stitches.

Anyway, inbetween our games with City, its going to be a contest on who will drop points to the other sides. We get a draw in one of our league games with City and we are okay.

Excellent. Thanks for that. I had been wanting to have another look at just him. The tiny cameo was as good as I had thought in real time. Man Utd looked scared of him. Very penetrating.

Our entire starting 11 cost £270m, or just over 1 Man U or Chelsea transfer window.
I’ve seen Man U fans use the excuse that we’re 3 years in to our rebuild and they’re 6 months in to theirs, quickly forgetting that Arteta’s first transfer window was Cédric and Mari on loan. Imagine what Arteta would have done if he’d had £250m in his first window like Ten Hag

Last nights performance and the brief but very encouraging look at Trossard has almost eased the pain of losing Mudryk to Chelsea.

Roy Keane on Arteta getting booked for touchline behaviour: "I certainly wouldn't worry about the yellows. He's certainly passionate, you're not in this job to be liked. He's there to win football matches for Arsenal and that's what he's doing. I have no problem with it."

I’m not surprised Keane sided with Arteta on this, he’s a man who has little time for any side show nonsense narrative. Win games however you need to

Rashford only had 3 touches of the ball in the last 30 minutes, Tomiyasu ruthlessly shut him down

I think it was to do with Arsenal dominating the game. Tommy made a shaky start and it was a bit worrying to see Rashford beat him twice in a matter of seconds. In fairness, he settled after a while and played well thereafter.

The last 30 minutes was as good as anything we've done this season. Their equaliser was a horrible goal to concede so the way we just got on with it, dominated possession and pushed for the winner was really impressive. Man Utd are a very dangerous team to face in those circumstances and we gave them nothing. Brilliant performance.

The one thing that was very encouraging was the squad didn't let Jesus' injury give up hope of a title. They kept on with it and look as strong. It's a very mentally mature side for so many young players. I kinda think the young ones are having too much fun and youthful exuberance and team togetherness to realize they are supposed to be scared in this position at their age.

I don't want to be too excited. I am trying hard to manage my expectations. I still want to see each game and take it from there.

I watched the discussion between Keane, Fabregas and Redknapp after the match and I have to say they were all very complimentary about Arsenal. Even Keane who can be hard to impress didnt have a bad word to say about Arsenal. When Neville joined the chat he said he was still unconvinced about Arsenal's title challenge which is fair enough, but his opinion seems to be based on a future dip in form as opposed to anything in the here and now.

I also thought that Ten Haag came across ominously well in his interview. Very steely, very focused and clearly not resting on any laurels despite their dramatic improvement. Similarly, I liked Arteta both praising our performance but saying we have much to improve on, and responding to the non story of his yellow card with a smile and the phrase (which will soon be a t-shirt): "You can always get better in life init".

Can’t get the game out of my head. Thoughts Bubbling around in my head…

It was only a short cameo but I do wonder if Trossard is going to bench Martinelli. Gab is more of a free spirit and has kind of been acting as a covert second striker where I get the feeling Trossard has better interplay. Both fine players.

What happens to Ben White here. It’s the first time really he’s struggled in the right back position

When Jesus comes back into fitness will he go straight back into the side ? It’s going to be a very difficult decision. Nketiah makes us more dangerous around the penalty area and is likely to score more goals but Jesus has the unpredictability on the ball that makes things happen from deeper. Nketiah is surprising us all but I feel he whilst improved he still lacks that bit of quality outside of the box that makes things happen. Impossible decision

Arteta generally has a rotatation dilemma/problem in some areas. At the moment he has some very good players not getting minutes who will likely leave unless they get more. He needs to rotate not just out of necessity when someone is injured. I’m thinking Tommy, Emile Smith Rowe and KT here. I would be tempted to give these guys minutes against Brentford certainly and possibly Everton.

Finally I can’t emphasise enough how much the atmosphere has changed in the ground and the impact it has on the team. Those crazy kids in the clock end really add to it and deserve immense credit. After we score it’s brilliant watching the sheer limbs all over the place behind the goal.

Whilst it’s irritating I can’t really disagree with Neville on this.

20 games to go. It’s perfectly logical to expect that Arsenal could lose 3 of those games. Still a very young team and one without the experience of the pressures of going for a title.

What I would say is now without question we are in a 1v1 battle with city for the league and if we can beat Everton and Brentford and get a point or better at home v city then really his stance on this will become very difficult to maintain. Also his view ignores the fact that so far this season we have overcame every obstacle we have faced. Plus obviously he’s a total plonker

Martinelli, despite a couple of goals and an assist has not been great since returning from the World Cup, which is surprising because you would think after being called up by Brazil his confidence would be sky high.

Yesterday Saka was unplayable, Martinelli was not really much of a threat. Where have those dribbles gone? Trossard came on and looked more dangerous in ten mins than Martinelli had looked the whole game.

I would love Martinelli to be a superstar but at the moment he's out of form. Maybe needs a few games rest.

Yesterday was magic but we are still only halfway through the season, anything can happen in 19 games. Injuries to key players is still the biggest concern.

If we have an 8 point lead with 10 games to go and having played City then we can start dreaming but not quite yet.

Having said that, I'd forgotten how nervewracking even the sniff of a title challenge could be, not good for the old ticker.

We know that we have to bring our A game to almost every single match and yesterday the first half was not great, our passing was sloppy and not crisp like it usually is and we were nervy at the back. I was twitchy. Thankfully, our A game reappeared for the 2nd half.

I've read a lot of 'if Casemiro was on the pitch..' comments from Man U. Willfully neglecting to note that the only game Partey has missed this season was Man U's victory over us at OT - we might be looking at another invincible season if he'd been fit. And Partey was injured so I'd consider that more unfortunate than an experienced player recklessly diving in to a knee high tackle that could have been a straight red when he knew a booking would rule him out of Man U's next massive game.