Hard day at office for Wenger

ARSENE WHINGER is back, if he ever really went away; railing against the injustices of the football world, standing up for his misunderstood and victimised players and generally bearing a persecution complex as large as the Old Trafford trophy room.

Only, on this occasion, it was hard not to sympathise with the Arsenal manager after his young team lost for the first time this season to the defending Premier League champions.

For 45 minutes, in which they led thanks to a superb Andrei Arshavin strike, Arsenal played United off the pitch, swamping the hosts in midfield and making Ryan Giggs, employed in a central role, look as though he had aged a decade overnight.

In the second period, and with Darren Fletcher inspiring United to finally get a grip in the middle of the park, Alex Ferguson’s side responded as champions do, winning the game thanks to a slightly dubious Wayne Rooney penalty and a comedy headed own goal from Abou Diaby.

Still, Whinger, sorry Wenger, had his own analysis of proceedings and there was a lot of justification in the Arsenal manager’s complaints.

Referee Mike Dean somehow determined that the game – full-blooded but never brutal – warranted nine bookings and, further, that Arsenal players merited two-thirds of those.

He also denied Arshavin a clear first-half penalty, seconds before his goal, rushed to award Rooney his spot kick and sent off Wenger in the dying seconds for the heinous crime of kicking a water bottle after Dean had – correctly as it transpired – ruled out a 95th-minute Robin van Persie equaliser.

On top of all that, Wenger is still smarting from UEFA’s decision last week to retrospectively charge midfielder Eduardo for diving in the Champions League tie with Celtic – a crime repeated by Emmanuel Eboue, booked for simulation at Old Trafford.

Wenger believes Eduardo has been victimised by UEFA and was more interested in pointing out that an unnamed United player committed “20 fouls” against his team without receiving a caution.

“There are other points that, for me, are more urgent (than diving), players who play only to make fouls,” said Wenger, hinting broadly in the direction of United’s Fletcher. “Players who are never punished, who make repeated fouls and are never punished, who get out of the game without a yellow card. I think it is more anti-football than a player who did what Eduardo did.”

Pressed further and asked if he thought United had set out to muscle Arsenal out of the game, Wenger shrugged: “I don’t know that. You should ask them.”

And when asked whether Dean and his officials had cost the Gunners three points, Wenger repeated: “I don’t know. You should ask them that.”

Despite their comfortable advancement to the Champions League group stages, this has not been a happy week at the Emirates, with their first league defeat of the season adding to their manager’s malaise.

Yet Wenger claimed – and rightly so – that he had seen enough in large stretches of the game, save for the six second-half minutes in which United scored twice, to think that his young squad, written off before the season started, can challenge for the title. After all, it should be pointed out, apart from picking the ball out of the net twice, Manuel Almunia barely had a save to make.

“I think we were a bit too nervous and rushed our decisions in certain situations,” said Wenger. “We looked mature in terms of the positions we took up but individually still there is some nervousness there.

“But I think we are equipped to challenge for the title. United can improve but when you compare the performances of the teams they won a game they should not have won.”

Post-game, United wore the look of a team conscious that they had dodged a major setback.

In the light of such relief, even Fletcher freely admitted he should have been penalised with a first-half penalty for the foul on Arshavin, although he was also correct when he claimed he was owed a slice of fortune having been unfairly punished against the same opponents in last season’s Champions League tie.

“I went for the challenge and felt I got the ball. Maybe I am due a bit of luck after what happened in the Champions League last season,” he confessed. “I played a bit of the ball and a bit of the man.

“Their goal came from that anyway because I panicked and miscleared and they scored from that so they haven’t got much to complain about really.”

Try telling that to Arsene Wenger.

Man-of-the-match: Darren Fletcher (Man United): United won because they got to grips with the midfield in the second half. Fletcher was the main reason why.

Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral) 4: Terrible, not least because of the nine bookings he made.

Match rating: 5/5: One of the showpiece events of the Premier League calendar did not disappoint.