Arsenal versus Manchester United has always been a big match for me during the season whether at Old Trafford or the E******s. Chelsea versus Arsenal and Liverpool versus Arsenal are a must watch for me. Aston Villa versus Arsenal has had some moments too down the years. You can imagine that I am on cloud nine for the next couple of weeks. However, this holy trinity of Premiership games did not start in the best fashion when I caught the recent Arsenal versus Manchester United game.

It is not how I like to catch the big games of the season. Watching football in the pub can produce the occasional memorable moment. However, on this dreary Sunday afternoon, I found myself in a hot room that lacked air with spotlights shining down on the bright white walls. It felt as if I was on a packed tube train but at least I was away from the pillars.

In an ideal world, I would have wanted to be in the E******s breathing in the ebb and flow of game that was playing out in front of me. Watching Arsenal on song is a great sight in British football. I would have wanted to be in the stadium to say that ‘I was there when player x scored that awesome goal or made that match-winning pass. I do not want a commentator and a pundit to be giving their own impressions of the action. Half time adverts for never-ending sales of sofas and ‘too good to be true’ double-glazing packages seem to cause a painful migraine in my skull as well as a rash across my body.

Circumstances meant that I was drawn to this bar with a Manchester United supporting work colleague providing intensive commentary on this action in a typical Manchester United sort of way. I was also being blinded by a series of neatly gelled heads in front of my field of vision. Their carefully straightened strands of hair were glistening under the bright spotlights of the bar. My mood was made even worse because I was watching the game at nearly ninety degrees to the desperately small plasma television that hung limply on the wall. The isolated TV seemed to be embarrassed whilst two hundred sets of eyes were glued to every pass and kick at the E******s Stadium.

As the minutes ticked by, I tried to focus on the action and became progressively depressed as the score line developed. I was a bit shocked too, and it looked as if I was not the only one. I may have been watching the action with a large crick in my neck but it was not hard to tell that certain Arsenal players and fans could not quite understand what was happening around them. I wondered whether that game was just an off day for the Gunners.

Was it a case of getting a blockage out of the u bend of the season to make sure that Arsenal will be flowing again on the run up to the second week of May? I could not make sense of the action but knew that Chelsea and Liverpool would be the next opponents for the Gunners. I had to hope that is was a blip and that normal service would be resumed as soon as possible.

Of course, the media were going on about the need for a total team restructuring at Arsenal. After bust ups in the tunnel in 2005, the pizza incidents of 2004, I am suspecting that the general theme of the 2010 clash was to suggest that Arsenal’s pretty football is pleasing on the eye. However, the suggestion is the team is lacking that extra something to reclaim the Premier League title and achieve success in any cup competition whether at home or abroad.

It is not a new argument. I often wonder why some people seem to have such a problem with the fluid passing game of Arsenal? Why have the achievements of the 2003-2004 team failed to gain as much exposure as the Russian revolution at Chelsea, Wayne Rooney and Manchester United, or the story of the millionaires at Manchester City? I am convinced that Arsenal and Arsene Wenger have never quite got the credit that they deserve and I am not quite sure why. When defeats occur, I am left wondering whether some people are secretly happy to have a little bit more ammunition to trot out in the debates.

Most of us go to football matches with the hope that we will catch an exciting performance with a little bit of skill mixed into the action. I have never met a football fan who thrives on ninety minutes of dull, dreary and negative tactics played by players of horrific quality. Although some people sneer at the idea that people go to football for a bit of entertainment, you do live in the hope that you will be enlivened by a little bit of thrilling action. Some people have had to look far for that little spark of excitement, but for the last fifteen years or so, Arsenal fans have generally never had to leave to leave their stadium seats.

I am pretty sure that fans are tired of the same clichés and summaries being banded around the airwaves, blogs, websites and newspaper pages every other week. It was not that long ago at the start of this particular 2009/2010 season when some commentators were writing off Arsenal from being anywhere near the title during February 2010 let alone within the Champions League spots. The Gunners were destined for a bit of Europa League obscurity during the coming seasons as they went through another of their painful ‘transitions.’ However, the red half of North London is still in the race; still with desire and still fighting as I write this piece.

One week’s misery is next week’s fish and chip paper, and it was the turn of Arsenal to be in the spotlight in the first week of February 2010, at a similar point as in February 2009. Can you remember the start of last year when the team went though a seemingly never ending series of draws, which was a shock for the people inside and outside the E******s? Everything resolved itself although it is probably that some of those 0-0s could have taken Arsenal higher up the table to be a more established force in the battle for the title come the final weeks of the season.

Back in 2010, and in spite of that Manchester United game, I am not convinced that everything is falling apart at the seams. There is a strong nucleus to the team that is positive for the short and the long term. The brickbats will continue to fly towards Arsenal with only the hint of a bouquet. The fat lady seems to be singing in certain parts of the football world including down the A3 in Portsmouth. It will be a long time before that lady of doom decides to do a cabaret at the E******s.