Manchester Utd - 2 Arsenal - 0: This was the mini-melee to last year's battle of Old Trafford. Manchester United enjoy the spoils of war because Ruud van Nistelrooy, having missed from the spot in that goalless draw, converted a penalty here to halt Arsenal's unbeaten run at 49 Premiership matches. That sequence goes into the cold storage of the record books, but Highbury rancour will burn in the days ahead.

Wayne Rooney tucked home a stoppage-time goal as substitutes Louis Saha and Alan Smith combined on the counter-attack. The opportunity only arose because Arsenal were trying to notch an equaliser and right a wrong. Van Nistelrooy's penalty was not merited.

With 73 minutes gone, Kolo Toure prompted a United surge with an aimless clearance and Rooney, at the end of it, twisted into the penalty area on the right. Sol Campbell may not have made contact at all and the forward was already heading for the turf as the defender pulled his foot away.

The referee Mike Riley indulged Rooney on his 19th birthday and van Nistelrooy fired the ball low into the corner of the net. Although Arsenal were victimised then, they should agree that the officials favoured them by taking no action when Ashley Cole, for once bested by Cristiano Ronaldo, felled him inside the box in the 78th minute.

Riley was predestined to fill a role that would be hissed in some quarters. This was a fixture that was inflamed even before it began. Upon taking the field, the Arsenal players embraced one another with the fervour of men about to pour out of the trenches. As it happened, they could easily have enjoyed superior numbers in the conflict. Van Nistelrooy was lucky Riley saw no offence when his studs ate into Cole's knee. Given the referee was eager to avoid red cards, he might have felt a booking would have sufficed, but it is beyond dispute Rio Ferdinand should have been dismissed.

The influential Edu put Freddie Ljungberg clear in the 19th minute and the United centre half barged into his back some 30 yards from the target to bowl him over when there were no other defenders left to intervene. Neither Riley nor his linesman reacted and Ferdinand, reprieved, went on to be the leading performer in this fixture.

And yet there was more to the occasion than conflicting interpretations and simmering ill-will from Arsenal players at the full-time whistle. The visitors had cultivated spells that were a level above United's efforts, but no-one can gainsay the manner in which United willed themselves on as the match entered its last half-hour.

United can live with the suggestion that, for the time being, they are less highly evolved than Arsenal. After all, they can strive to put that right between now and the end of the league programme in the satisfied knowledge they have prevented Arsene Wenger's team from disappearing over the horizon.

The number that will gnaw at Arsenal is not the end of their unbeaten run. The more pertinent figure is an advantage over United now trimmed to eight points. Riley is far from being the only person responsible for that.

Arsenal have not won against these opponents in the league since clinching the title at Old Trafford in 2002. Alex Ferguson's side interrogate them with a severity unequalled by any other club in England. Although the visitors collected more bookings, it was always United whose aggression verged on ugliness. Arsenal could not rise above it.

Their most spirited player was Jose Antonio Reyes, who, for instance, declined to be discouraged even when Gary Neville's response to being skinned by the Spaniard was to hack him down. Elsewhere in the line-up, Arsenal did not show quite as much conviction in the bid to slice through the United back four.

Perhaps they were deceived by the impression a draw was readily achievable. On the other hand, critics can make the case the killer instinct is not so highly developed as Arsenal's stylishness. Roy Carroll blocked well when Edu put Thierry Henry through in the 42nd minute, but the finish had none of the verve the Frenchman normally contributes.

He has supplied seven of Arsenal's last nine league goals against United and while he can be proud of the statistic Wenger must ask why no other player can compare with him as a provider. The dependence on Henry is a weakness for which the Highbury side will occasionally suffer.

United have an array of creative footballers, but their ability is not being brought fully to bear. There are players at Old Trafford who are pinpoints of excellence but Alex Ferguson is yet to work out how best to join the dots.

Ridiculous as it seems when referring to a footballer who obtained a penalty and scored himself, Rooney has to be considered a slight disappointment here. He does, nonetheless, nurse a predatory instinct at all times and when Patrick Vieira let the ball run under his foot in the eighth minute, the forward pinged a shot against Kolo Toure and then set up Ryan Giggs for a drive that Campbell blocked.

A potential defeat for Arsenal hung in the air. Even so, they should be honoured all the more for staving off an afternoon such as this. In those prior 49 games they had never even been behind in the closing 20 minutes. This wounding result at Old Trafford now asks them to show renewed durability in their reaction.