Arsenal:
               Lehmann
        Lauren Toure Campbell Cygan
Pires Cesc (Flamini 80) Gilberto Hleb (Bergkamp 73)
         Henry Reyes (Eboue 90)

Arsenal started well enough. On the 3rd minute Robert Pires looped a ball into the box which Alexander Hleb tried to volley as it dropped, but he didn't catch it right at all. Both players went on to have decent games, especially the Belarussian who looked completely over his injury.

A minute later Thierry Henry played a nice 1-2 with Cesc Fabregas to take him through a crowd and into the box, but the return ball came back at Henry a bit too fast for him to take the pace off it, and the ball bounced through to van der Sar.

Then up the other end Ronaldo whipped a cross into the box which Lauren headed out, but not particularly strongly. Fortunately it hit Silvestre on the back and went out for a goal kick.

Then van der Sar tried a route one ball all the way through for Rooney to chase, forcing Jens Lehmann to slide out of his box to the right and clear with his feet.

Jose Antonio Reyes did brilliantly to bring a high cross-field ball down right on the right touchline, then beat Gary Neville who was forced to obstruct his run. Henry put the free kick into the box and it was cleared as far as Cesc just outside the D to the right, he hit it first time and the low shot swerved a couple of feet wide of van der Sar's left hand post.

On 15, Rooney's ball in from their left wing was cleared by Pascal Cygan, who'd come into the box from his wing to cover, and good thing that he did. Soon after, Ronaldo has his first one-on-one with Cygan and it was noticeable that Reyes chased straight over to help out, presumably under orders to do so, and it worked. Cygan had a decent first half as it happened, so much so that Ronaldo switched to the other wing towards the end of the half. The second half was another story though...

We came close on 18, following a really nice move in from the left wing involving Henry and Fabregas. It ended up with Pires coming into the box from the right and he hit a good shot from a narrow angle which the keeper saved well (not entirely sure that it was going in, though).

Then Rooney tried a 1-2 with Ronaldo in the D but instead of playing the return pass for Rooney's clever little run across him and into space, Ronaldo tried a shot which went way way wide.

A terrific fast break from Arsenal ended with Pires coming into the box on the right again. This time he tried a cross to the far post where Hleb was making a good run, but Gary Neville was alert to it and turned it out for a corner.

Lehmann hit a really poor clearance from his D which went straight to Giggs out on the wing. He tried to beat Jens with a first time shot, with the keeper stranded, but it went wide.

A last, a couple of bookings: Giggs for a foul on Reyes and then Lauren for one on Ronaldo.

A couple of minutes before the break van Nistelrooy did really well to creat space for a powerful rising shot which Lehmann saved brilliantly with one outstretched hand. The ball fell to Ronaldo who had time, but rushed his effort and skewed it over.

Early in the second half Kolo Toure robbed van Nistelrooy in the centre circle and started a move that finished with a Henry flick-and-volley in the D, which was blocked a point-blank range.

Then a Giggs cross from their left found Rooney beyond the far post. He tried to head it back across goal to where van Nistelrooy was coming in beyond the other post, but the ball was a bit above Rooney so he couldn;t quite control it right and it just looped harmlessly past that post with Lehmann rushing over to cover.

Cygan started to be found wanting. Typically, he put in a great touch to deny Ronaldo near the halfway line, but then as the ball rolled forward towards another United player Pascal chased it instead of finding his position again, which left Ronaldo in the clear to receive the ball back. He came forward into the space we'd gifted him and hit a far post cross which, thankfully, Giggs mis-kicked.

On 57, Hleb was brought down on the left wing by Fletcher. Henry's free kick was helped on in the box by Cygan, and fell to Gilberto with back to goal. He turned and fired goalwards but it was blocked before it went more than a couple of yards.

Sol Campbell managed to get his foot on a ball forward for van Nistelrooy, but only managed to poke it on into the striker's path. His shot came out off the post. This was a good spell for United.

Ronaldo again found space to receive the ball on our dodgy wing and this time an early low ball to the near post saw Toure and Lehmann rushing to deny van Nistelrooy. Toure just got there first and put it out for a corner.

Rooney and Reyes clattered into each other chasing the ball towards the touchline, resulting in the Arsenal man colliding with the advertising hoardings. Rooney got booked which to be frank looked a travesty as Reyes looked to have been the culprit. At first I thought that the card might have been for something Rooney said (the ref, Graham Poll, had had words with him several times before that). But the free kick went Arsenal's way so I don't think it was that.

We got lucky again a few minutes later when Wes Brown hit a cross into the box and van Nistelrooy got penalised for a foot up on Lauren, when in fact it had been more a question of Lauren's head being low as he stooped for it, and van Nistelrooy looked to have every right to go for the ball.

Then on 68 mins we came close again ourselves. Henry hit a diagonal ball goalwards from the side of the D which Pires stretched to get a touch on to make sure it was heading goalwards, and van der Sar made a great save.

Rooney looked like he might have used a hand to control a high ball forward, but given the dubious nature of his first yellow card it was probably fair that he didn't get a second! Soon after, Lauren also appeared to handle the ball inexplicably as it bounced over our goalline - perhaps he thought it had gone out already?

We had a penalty shout when Cesc was clattered into by Neville (can't really comment - it was up the other end) but Poll waved play on and the ball fell to Henry who probably should have done a lot better than hit his shot wide.

Things were hotting up a bit. O'Shea got himself booked for a foul on Jose "foul me" Reyes.

Ronaldo got himself close to the goalline and tried a low shot to the near post which Lehmann did really well to fall on (even if he did nearly carry the ball into his own net).

Bergkamp came on for Hleb and Park for Giggs (have to say, I like the look of Park). Cygan got lucky with a really blatant last-man foul (on Rooney I think), then United had a few half chances which were blocked well. Flamini came on for Fabregas.

Lehmann's kicking continued to worry. Twice he just skewed it out for a United throw in our half of the pitch, and one time it came to Ronaldo whose shot was deflected just past the post.

Cygan again showed his Jekyll & Hyde tendency: a great tackle on Park followed up by Pascal trying to let the ball run out play and failing abysmally. It's probably lucky that he ended up only giving away a corner rather than allowing a cross to come over when we'd have been least expecting it.

Gary Neville had to stretch to get to a looping diagonal ball to Lehmann's left hand side, and could only divert the ball into the side-netting. Ronaldo wasted a free kick whacking it high over the bar.

Emmanuel Eboue came on for Reyes (and went to the right wing with Pires switching to the left. Cygan slipped as Rooney played the ball inside him for Park's run in from the wing, but just managed to get a foot on the ball as it went past, sending the ball out for a corner. O'Shea made contact with the cross but Eboue was on hand to clear off the line.

One point's not much use to either team, but both may be content not to have lost. I've heard people saying that the only team that'll be happy with this result is Chelsea. But I'm not sure that they care all that much, such is their lead...