Arsenal:
                 Lehmann
       Eboue (Hoyte) Toure Senderos Clichy
Hleb (van Persie) Cesc Flamini (Baptista) Rosicky
             Henry Adebayor

From what I could gather, it wasn't going all that well. Tomas Rosicky's name was mentioned in connection with a couple of shots that, if the bloke next to me is to be believed, actually went in the opposite direction to goal. There was a penalty appeal up the other end, Thierry Henry going down a bit easily over Gary Neville's leg. But it was far too far away for anyone at our end of the ground to know what happened, even those who weren't seeing double.

It got a bit exciting, and sobering, right at the end of the half. Jens Lehmann punched a corner out, making a decent connection but getting more height than distance. It fell to Wayne Rooney just outside the box who hit a powerful shot which was dipping just under the bar but for a stunning fingertip save from Lehmann, just getting enough contact on it to send the ball onto the top of the bar. The second corner, from the other (left) corner, found Henrik Larsson unmarked just beyond the penalty spot. He directed his header back across goal, low inside Lehmann's left hand post. But Gael Clichy had maintained his position on the post, and wasn't needed as Lehmann got down quickly in front of him to make another good save.

There followed a horrendous queue for coffee and water and more water (the catering facilities at the new stadium are, I'm sad to say, woefully short - this is the first time I've bothered at half time and I sincerely hope it's the last time I'm so in need). But it seemed to help, and by the time Rooney scored the opening goal I was more conscious of what was going on than I really wanted to be. It was the impressive new full back Evra who made it, with a terrific overlapping run inside the winger (is that an 'underlapping' run?) which Cesc Fabregas was slow to pick up on. The cross was excellent but made even better by a little touch from Kolo Toure at the near post... trying to head it away from goal he only managed to glance it on and beyond the far post where Rooney leaned forward to plant a difficult standing header inside Lehmann's left hand post.

Soon after the restart there was some playacting from Ronaldo, who went down clutching his face after a nothingy challenge from Toure. Git. Great to see him kept so quiet by Clichy - so much so that he switched wings. Hard to be too critical of his fabrication antics though when we've got Emmanuel Eboue doing similar.

Clichy put a decent cross in which was cleared at the near post by Ferdinand and came to Rosicky who dragged his shot a yard short of the near post. Rosicky was looking good but Alexander Hleb was having an unusually quiet game, so it was no surprise to see him taken off for Robin van Persie with 25 minutes to go.

Emmanuel Adebayor was having a terrific game though, chasing all over the place and causing trouble everywhere he went. Some great work got him to the goal line on the left and he cut it back intelligently for Mathieu Flamini on the edge of the box. He passed it on to his right to Rosicky who tried a chip into the far top corner but overhit it a bit.

Arsenal certainly weren't giving up on it. A nice move ended with Henry's little chip into the box from the right. Adebayor got his head to it but, I think because he'd jumped a little too early, he couldn't quite get the power or direction he wanted. It went down towards the right post where van der Sar fell on the ball but couldn't quite gather it at the first attempt. Adebayor was quick to react and challenged the keeper for the ball, but eventually van der Sar and a defender between them managed to thwart the big striker. The keeper ended up being treated but it wasn't clear whether it was his own player or Adebayor that had caught him.

11 minutes to go and Julio Baptista came on for Flamini. But it was United who threatened with a low cross from their left towards Larsson right in front of goal... but Clichy had covered brilliantly coming in from the other wing to make a crucial tackle. The resulting corner found Vidic's head but he got too little contact on it and only glanced it beyond the far post.

Ronaldo picked up the ball on their left, beat someone on the touchline and started a dangerous looking run. But Rosicky chased him and pulled off an awesome sliding tackle. He got up with the ball and passed infield to Cesc who carried it forward up that side of the pitch. Cesc ran into trouble just outside the box and lost the ball, but between him and Rosicky they kept battling for the ball and somehow came away with it. Rosicky made a run towards the corner, Cesc found him, the cross came in towards Henry at the near post. The skipper waved a foot at the ball as it slipped underneath him - not sure if he was trying to back heel it into the goal or help it on its way, but if he did make any contact it had the latter effect. The cross kept going beyond the far post where Robin van Persie was coming in, with a defender in tow, and he blasted it high into the roof of the net from a narrow angle - a very difficult finish executed to perfection.

7 minutes to go and we might have been happy with a point, given we'd been behind for half an hour. But the momentum was with Arsenal now. United tried to shore things up by bringing on Heinze for Ronaldo, giving them 2 left backs in the area we'd just exploited to create the equaliser. But the winner came from there as well and again Rosicky had a big part to play. It was his ball towards the corner this time, which found Eboue's overlapping run and which was angled and powered just right to take Evra out of the equation. Eboue's cross, though, was better. From deep by the goal line it curled away from goal and found Henry lurking just forward of the penalty spot. He jumped and thumped a header high past van der Sar's flailing arms.

Eboue limped off, apparently having hurt himself in crossing the ball, with Hoyte coming on. But we were already into injury time and there was no time for any more play of significance.

I said a few weeks ago that the new stadium didn't feel like home yet, and that it wouldn't until we had some good memories to look back on. So, we've had some good wins there but no number of 4-0s against Charlton or even a 3-0 against Tottenham is going to do the job. The emotions of this game however will be sticking in the minds of everyone who was there, and Ashburton Grove is going to feel a bit more like home when we go there next (for the 2 cup games against Bolton on Sunday and Tottenham next Wednesday). I'm not sure what emotions it'll evoke however in the fools who left early, in particular those like the ones I met in an Upper Street pub afterwards. We can only hope they've learned their lesson from this as well. I mean, leaving early in order to get the kids home or something like that is one thing, but leaving early just to take 10 minutes off the walk to the pub afterwards??!! These people should be identified and banned (if not shot). I'm glad to say, it was a hell of a struggle but I made it to the game, stayed to the end, and even remember some of it...