Gio van Bronckhorst fell over at Anfield yesterday and prize chump Paul Durkin went straight for his yellow card. For me, this decision easily beat Graham Poll's Tuesday nonsense for stupidity and bloody-mindedness.

But never mind. We don't want anyone's sympathy and we don't want people to think of us as whingers.

What matters is Arsenal's response. No silly post-match histrionics from Thierry Henry this time. Instead Arsenal picked their game up and dominated much of the game from that point on: down to 10 men and playing at the legendary home of many pundits' premiership favourites.

Freddie Ljungberg's return from his back injury was highly significant, as it was the Swede who won the penalty just befor e half time for Henry to put Arsenal ahead. One-time anticipate Arsenal signing Jerzy Dudek brought Freddie down after the ball had been knocked past him (but escaped further punishment). Dudek guessed right as Henry placed the spot kick low to his left, but there was too much pace on it.

And it was Freddie that stormed into the box 7 minutes into the second half to double the advantage. His great run to the near post was perfcet for Robert Pires's perfect cross.

Litmanen pulled one back a few minutes later, and although we had a few dodgy moments after that it could just as easily have gone to 3-1 as 2-2.

Arsenal go second above Liverpool on goal difference. They've played a game more but if anything we have the psychological edge now.

Of course, in this crazy season nothing lasts for long. Whenever a team seems to be getting into a run of form they suffer a surprising setback, whenever a team seems to be slipping they suddenly string a few results together.

The next big test is boxing day at home to Chelsea, who thrashed Liverpool last weekend and hope to have Emmanuel Petit available after a long absence.