Manchester United: Title rivals will be nervous as momentum

[grigor]

Manchester United did not make a complete case for normal service being resumed by beating Arsenal - but a glance at recent results and the Premier League table suggests the obituaries can stay locked in the drawer.

The noise levels around Old Trafford, and the joy that greeted the final whistle, were an accurate measure of this game's significance to United and David Moyes.

United needed three points to stop Arsenal extending their lead over them to difficult, if not quite impossible, proportions. Their still relatively new manager needed a victory in a game of such status after previous opportunities against Chelsea, Liverpool and - desperately and embarrassingly - Manchester City yielded only one point.

And both duly arrived courtesy of Robin van Persie's soaring 27th minute header from Wayne Rooney's corner. If the striker is, as Arsene Wenger suggests, still "an Arsenal man" then he has a funny way of showing it.

Van Persie scored in both meetings with his former club last season and here there was no question of him obeying the contrived new convention of refusing to celebrate against old associates. As he beat Olivier Giroud in the air amid breakdown in Arsenal's zonal marking system and sent his header over Kieran Gibbs on the line, Van Persie was off in elation as Old Trafford rejoiced. And quite right too.