They certainly weren’t irresistible today, but Arsenal, at their best, still astonished. There were times when they made Man Utd look like an infants school team in midfield; shame they couldn’t finish anything. The simple truth is you can’t afford to make a mistake like Sol Campbell did at Old Trafford. Man U’s talent and sheer will have rendered Arsenal vincible again, but Ferguson’s team aren’t quite good enough to win the title. I also think the FA will have word or two to say to Mr van Nistelrooy about some of his behaviour when they review the video.

[I watched the game in the surreal surroundings of Cambridge’s Jubilee pub, lined up at the back with three other black guys, an Asian, and a wall full of pictures of Diana Spencer. We passed a variant of the Tebbit test, I think: the presence of a “support-anyone-even-Arsenal-against-Man U” reflex is a strong indicator of being a loyal Englishman.]