Still smiling

Results

Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
08 Nov	12:45 PM	P	Manchester United (H)	2	1	Win

Yesterday's blog was written with not much attention paid to what the media, or indeed the employees of our great football club, had to say about our epic victory on Saturday afternoon. It was written, some 30-odd hours after the event bathed in the most euphoric afterglow of victory.

Today the dust has settled somewhat, though, on the first day of a week's holiday, I still bought three papers to read all about the events that defined my weekend- The Mirror, The Times and the Guardian, if you're interested. Kevin McCarra's Guardian headline a beautiful one for any Arsenal fan, "Arsenal reign supreme in football of the Gods".

Whilst David Pleat's tactical chalkboard in the same paper was fulsome in praise of Arsène's deployment of the midfield five, The Times' Oliver Kay and Martin Samuel legitimately pointed out that perhaps Saturday's display does not quite answer all the questions being asked of our beloved club and the Mirror? Well, nothing of consequence really, but then it wouldn't, would it? It did, though, have a lovely centre page of Samir Nasri roaring away in celebration of his second goal as Nemanja Vidic, on his knees, looked on.

It's been interesting to read the reaction from sides to the game. On our side, Cesc talked of doing it for the manager; saying: "Apart from Gallas and Silvestre, the rest of us may never have had the chance to play football without him. We owe him a lot."

Whilst Samir Nasri, obviously as intelligent off the pitch as he is on it, had this to say: "It's the first time that I've scored two goals in a game and this is the greatest game of my career because of the rivalry between the two clubs."

Oh, so you've noticed that, Samir? Good lad. Arsène, for his part has talked of the shared leadership within the team, choosing not to focus on William Gallas, who, as I mentioned yesterday really was imperious. He also had praise for the backing given to the team on Saturday, calling us "tremendous", whilst acknowledging that the fans reacted to the team's performance. Wouldn't it be great if he could say that after every home game, no matter the opposition or result?

Over on the dark side, Ferguson, who apparently shared a pre-match cuppa with Arsène, said: "If you're going to get beaten, just make sure it's by someone playing good football."

He then paid us a bit of a back-handed compliment, but let's not dwell on that here. All in all, as we now begin to look forward to seeing the young guns in action tomorrow night (I'll be there) and close this particular chapter, this really was a game I will one day be able to tell my kids about and say "I was there", whatever happens this season. Perhaps it doesn't rank up there with the sheer drama of our 2-1 victory against the same opposition in 2007, but it was a very, very special game.

I have no idea what kind of team we will see tomorrow, but it wouldn't surprise me, bearing in mind how things are panning out, to see Fabianski and Bendtner removed from the team that beat Sheffield United last month. I'm sure there will be more news later today.

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