After Boxing Day, many felt that the tide had turned in this season’s Premier League. Arsenal, still to visit Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge, were overhauled by a Manchester United side that would not suffer as Arsenal would by losing key players for up to six weeks thanks to the African Cup if Nations. With the Gunners’ draw at Fratton Park, the writing looked on the wall. They might have been top on Christmas Day, but half the campaign had not been completed and by the end of the following day, Arsene Wenger’s men were playing catch up.

But West Ham’s victory over United shows why football is the game it is. Dramatic, full of twists and turns. Often predictable, but not so predictable we can’t be surprised and sometime delighted by the way things go. Cristiano Ronaldo’s penalty miss ultimately cost United three points, just as Tomas Rosicky’s late miss against Portsmouth cost his team two.

Both the Czech and Emmanuel Adebayor were relegated to the substitutes’ bench for the trip to Goodison Park yesterday. Yet the one thing that really struck this observer yesterday was the togetherness of the team. This really is a united bunch of players. The two dropped players (Eboue was also not selected) came on to outstanding effect, seeing the team home with the two final goals, Adebayor’s when Arsenal were a man down due to Bendtner’s dismissal. The second half was an encouraging turnaround after the conclusion of the first. The weather doing its damnedest to dampen spirits that many felt are not up to the fight, the players wet through and up against it with little sign of serious goal threat. A goal down on a wet and windy night up north at a venue where Arsenal have too often been accounted for in a battle of wills.

But something happened at half time and Arsenal played it long in the second to devastating effect. What do you know – a plan B! It wasn’t pretty, but in the conditions against a battling Everton side, this was not an occasion to be concerned about entertaining the locals. David Moyes’ team set out to stop Arsenal’s passing game, so they went for yardage instead of possession. That a 4-4-2 formation was being used made it a reasonable option and Eduardo proved the main man, even if he did use his hand to assist his second goal.

As for technology and football, the failure of fourth official Mike Halsey’s headphone set to communicate with the referee to let him know Arsenal wanted to make a substitution unfortunately led to the player Wenger wanted to remove committing a bad foul that justified his expulsion. Bad luck, but fortunately, the price paid was not too great on the night and the one game ban Bendtner will receive (in comparison to Arteta’s three) will hopefully not cost greatly either.

The real gains out of the night, aside from the three points were the belief that the team will carry forward. Even had United won at Upton Park, the result against Everton would have buoyed the belief of a side with minimal little experience of challenging for a championship. This team is capable of going anywhere and getting a result. They will not whither and they cannot be written off. Bad games will come, but they have shown they can recover, that they have Iain Dowie’s ‘bouncebackability’.

Alex Ferguson’s players have ridden the course before and know the pitfalls, they aren’t going to fade away. Chelsea can strengthen enough in January not to be dismissed. This season’s Premier League will be a fight to the finish, but the ten points from 12 since the Boro defeat, added to the quality shown by those that could be called upon in the Carling Cup at Blackburn, means that Arsenal fans can have every confidence that their team can stay the pace and be in the mix after Easter.

A happy 2008 to Arsenal fans everywhere, let’s see more of what last six months have given us in the next five.