"I resent the fact that everybody thinks there is only Manchester United in the country. I can understand it because of what they've achieved in the last two weeks. But that can change quickly. We are in a society where the moment is all-important."

Thus spoke Arsene Wenger yesterday as his own private reckoning loomed. Tomorrow's seismic encounter between Arsenal and United at Highbury will reveal how much closer Wenger's work-inprogress is to completion as he enters his second year in charge. "Yes, thank you," he said at the team's hotel, "you can put a spotlight over me on the bench if you want."

The exquisite sub-plot to this salty league leadership struggle is not so much Ian Wright versus Peter Schmeichel as Wenger against Alex Ferguson. Both are feisty enough to enjoy the headline contrast between a volcanic Scot from a blue-collar background and a sagely-furrowed economics graduate from Strasbourg with a supposed Phd in all things worldly.

United's primary advantage is the absence of Dennis Bergkamp through suspension. Next is United's run of 7-0 and 6-1 victories at home, together with that 3-1 win over Feyenoord in Rotterdam. Arsenal were walloped 3-0 at Derby last weekend ("We lost our confidence a bit in that game."). Last year they lost home and away to both Liverpool and United, and have beaten Ferguson's team only once in their last 10 league meetings.

The one certainty is that there will be no more gum spat in Ferguson's direction from the Arsenal bench and no flying crockery in the home dressing-room. "I try to master my nerves, keep my behaviour clean," Wenger says. "I feel it's dangerous to be very passionate. I know I could do damage."

"Physically?" he was asked. "Yes," he replied. "What would you do, kick doors, kick the cat?"

"Kick journalists?" he added, helpfully. He was toying with us, for sure, but the essential point remains. "The English players give you everything they can. So you're in an advising situation, not a shouting one. I could never say to a Winterburn or Bould or Dixon, `You're not trying'. You cannot go into the dressing-room and throw bottles at their heads. It would be stupid."

Wenger is much too shrewd to take a knockabout pre-match chat to heart. But the heaping of eulogies on Old Trafford stokes his most combative impulses. "He (Ferguson) had time to work on his team when people were more patient than they are now. The example of Man Utd shows that stability is the right way."

Of his own reforming work over the summer, he says: "We changed the system, we changed many of the players and we are still second in the league, only four points behind. Why should we be anxious?

"I don't agree that Manchester United have left the rest behind. On their form of the last two weeks, yes. But they've played twice at home against weaker teams. They will not cruise through the season like that, don't worry. What is important to us is that we're consistent."

With Bergkamp and Emanuel Petit suspended and Marc Overmars and David Platt doubtful through injury, Wenger may summon Nicolas Anelka or Christopher Wreh to play alongside Wright.

A popular theory about Wenger is that he is restructuring the club from the lunch menus up, and here again he wants to convince his audience that United's youth programme hasn't driven them into an unassailable lead. "There were not enough quality players between 20 and 28 here, so we bought in that age range. Overmars, remember, is 24, Grimandi is 26, Anelka 18, Boa Morte 20, Vieira 21.

"Liam Brady is responsible for the youth policy and we try to get the best kids in now. We are prepared in the long-term to fight for the title."

Lest anyone should think he's afraid, he rose quickly and, with an impresario's smile, said as he left: "Don't miss that game." Not many will.

Guardian Service