Avoiding defeat to United was vital

It took a moment for us to realise that a goal had been given in the dying throes of Saturday’s game.

From our position in the stands, we assumed Howard Webb was about to call time in the last chance saloon, once the ball had stopped ping-ponging around United’s penalty area and that we Gooners would be trudging out of the stadium seconds later, crestfallen at having ceded such a big psychological advantage to our main league rivals.

No prizes are handed out in November but while you won’t win a league title before all the leaves have fallen off the trees, you can definitely lose one (as, sadly, we’ve demonstrated all too ably these past couple of seasons), and I believe this was in the back of the minds of both managers in the tactical deployment of their troops.