They tell you to never believe what you read in the newspapers, but it is difficult sometimes! It is in your face on a daily basis, and it is difficult to divorce yourself from the speculation and comment that is oozing away like pus from a bloody wound.

I am writing this piece in the evening of one of the most momentous matches that I have recently seen in the Premiership. Twenty-four hours ago, it was easy to believe that Arsenal Football Club was in the same state as a sub prime mortgage with unrest in the dressing room, terraces, boardroom and the streets of North London.

This has been a month when my two Arsenal supporting work colleagues wrote off their team and wailed that they “did not know what to do,” after the recent Stoke defeat. After a week of newspaper headlines that predicted the end of the world at the Emirates, I began to believe that Fabregas, Walcott, and the rest would not be doing much this Saturday night apart from licking their wounds and preparing their applications for Celebrity Big Brother.

It seemed that the post- Keegan meltdown has calmed down on Tyneside, although we must not forget that Newcastle still have an interim manager. I get a sense that it is now Arsenal’s turn to suffer the onslaught of anger, doom and phone-in bile.

I had forgotten how irritating can Sky Sports be, and how Jamie Redknapp has as much charisma as the women who drones away on the Circle Line to tell you that “We will be shortly arriving at Victoria, change here for the Victoria Line.”

The stadium was gradually filling up as Redknapp and his Sky buddies debated the decline of Arsenal with as much sincerity as wet fish. They debated the future of Arsenal as if the club was due to be shut down and the whole of the playing staff had the ability of a League Two outfit, apart from Cesc Fabregas.

It was suggested that everyone was criticising Arsenal because they have high expectations for the Gunners. I would have believed that statement if it had not been stabbed with a smile.

It was a relief for the football to get started, or I would have left the pub. The Arsenal team, which seemed to be always introduced with the ‘health’ warning that they were without their star players, kicked off with their usual passing game. There were hiccups but we have to remember that the Gunners were playing Manchester United and not a pub team from Croydon.

There were some suicidal passes but some sensational attacking play. It was pleasing on the eye and inspiring on the brain. I just wish that my lowly Championship outfit would turn on that style, in that awesome way.

We all know what happened next. There were two sensational goals from Nasri, and intelligent support play from Denilson and Diaby. It was a pleasure to witness football as it should be played, and Arsenal fans should enjoy those moments. If you want to mangle up a famous phrase, you should be pleased with this football team bearing these gifts.

It is difficult to believe that Arsenal fans believe everything that they read in the newspapers. They can read the graphs of Arsenal’s league positions since 2003, and can meditate over the spreadsheets, which have the pluses and minuses of Arsene Wenger’s spending over the past decade or so.

They can rant away on the football phone-ins and their newspaper columns that their team is going to the dogs, and they can call for their manager and board to be sacked. However, it would be a sad state of affairs if we watched the Arsenal faithful turn on their team like certain other supporters do to their beloved clubs.

I know that the current set up with Arsenal will change like it has done in the past. One of the most noticeable things about this month’s Arsenal versus Manchester United fixture was how the two teams lined up without the macho one-on-ones from five years ago. Some people miss the Keowns and Vieiras but I always want the football to do the talking.

I am also not as gullible to assume that this sensational win means that Arsenal are the Premiership, European, FA and Carling Cup champions in waiting. There will be more highs and lows but this result will hopefully quell the hunger of the media and certain commentators to feast on Arsenal football club, when there is so much more to come from this exciting group of players.