VIDEO: Favourite Arsenal Games: Part 4

Premiership, 24.10.04, Manchester United 2 – 0 Arsenal

Six minutes after Ruud van Nistelrooy scored the penalty, Ashley Cole brought Cristiano Ronaldo down in the box. Arsenal fans always forget that. (BBC: United could have had another penalty when Cole brought down Ronaldo.)

They also forget that Kolo Toure pathetically threw himself to the ground in injury time after Freddie Lungberg played him in. It’s not a question of morals here, we were both as bad as each other. The difference is we deserved a penalty that game, they didn’t, and we scored a goal, they didn’t.

Their pathetic whining only comes from the fact they forgot how to lose, so certainly forgot how to lose gracefully. Had the referee not been conned by Robert Pires’ dive a year before there would have been no “Invincibles” tag to protect and they probably would have accepted defeat a lot more easily than they have done (and I apply that to present tense – they’re still awfully bitter about it. Aww).

It was a bloody brilliant day and the fact Arsenal fans were so cut up about it made it all the better. They were creaming their pants at the prospect of going 50 games unbeaten at Old Trafford and to see it all crumbling down around them with Roy Carroll having next to nothing to do was just unbearable for them.

Five players from the eleven who started that day are still at the club whilst all of Arsenal’s starters have moved on. Whilst a win over Arsenal these days doesn’t feel anywhere near as good as it did back then, let’s hope our lads can given us something to shout about tomorrow.