Here are the thoughts of beNZed:

2-2 at the end, and I am satisfied with that. No doubt we played the better football, but Manure were the most effective side so far in shutting us down in the middle of the park and restricting the passing intricacies of Cesc, Hleb, Tomas etc. Nevertheless, we were the better side without question, albeit with less clear cut chances than we have greedily become used to.

While Manure were far better in defence and midfield than anyone else we have played so far this season, they were surprisingly pish up front and in their own linkplay for huge swathes of the match. Service to Hellboy and Rooney was average, and while the front two looked potentially dangerous when in possession, Ronaldo was largely well shackled again and there was little threat on goal.

As the first half came to an end, Brown chased possession down the right flank with Hleb, and with little trouble sent 14kg Alexandr flying with a little bit of a shoulder lean, stroked it up to Ronaldo who fired in a ball for Rooney who did well to lose Gallas just enough, hit an average shot at the near post and Gallas, straining to make back that yard he had lost on
the short fat cheating scouser managed only to deflect the strike loopily off his arm and past Almunia. It was an ugly,
scrappy goal, one which was hard to take, and one which frankly Almunia could have done far more to prevent. Although the trajectory of the ball was altered by Gallas´ lunge, it looped at a mediocre speed within range of the wrongfooted Manuel, and I really would prefer he had saved it. In saying this, had Jar Jar Binks done the same as Gallas at the other end, I would have been screaming for a penalty, so as dificult to stomach as the move was, we went into the break 0-1 down.

3 minutes into the second stanza, my favourite player Eboue pinged a lofted ball through to Big Ade, who did very well to reach it and strike towards goal as Van Der Sar came rushing out to the right of centre. He made the save, but the man that Larry Gold claimed all throughout August and September to be a shit signing, one Bacary Sagna, once again pulled out a gutbusting and deadset fantastic piece of play to be there on the byline, to launch a heroic slide into the ball, hook it back across goal perfectly to Cesc, and the Best Little Spaniard Ever composed himself, and stroked a worryingly calm and confident shot into the far corner while Jar Jar and various other assorted scrambling Mancs tried to scramble back on the line to intercept. 1-1, Cesc wheeled away in almost identical fashion to last week at Anfield, the place went mental and all was well with the world once again.

Arsenal continued to control a majority of possession, certainly helped by more inexplicable shit passing and breakdowns in communication between Manure players. Eboue went off for Theo, Gilberto and Eduardo came on for Hleb and Rosicky, and both teams looked mildly interested in a win, but equally content I felt with a draw. Then it all went tits up for us. Saha held possession on the left flank, we had a line of defenders between him and the goal, yet none of them did very much as the irritatingly handy Evra again made a telling contribution against us at the Wengerdome, darting through our static backline to collect a perfect pass from Saha that took him towards the byline on the left hand side of the area. And things went from dangerous to sphincter releasingly bad as Almunia decided he too would get involved in the whole deja vu spirit of football, rushing out wildly in a vain attempt to collect the ball reminiscent of the gaff at Highbury 3 seasons ago, allowing Evra to stub out his cigarette, fold up the newspaper he had been reading before Manuel got near him,  and cross the ball on a plate for two Manc scum to fight each other for the chance to bury the ball in an empty net. The slightly more loathesome of the two, Ronaldo, won the race and slid on his back in front of a baying crowd, 2-1 to the red scum and with 8 minutes to play, this was a test that even our splendid and huge hearted young charges were surely unlikely to recover from.

Like hell! After carving out a couple of useful half chances for Hleb and Eduardo, one of the most heart in mouth, ping pong exhibitions of palpitation inducing football I have ever seen then occurred in the Manc penalty box with a bare 3 mins left on the clock. I believe it was Clichy who got to the byline (there´s that word again, notice the similarity of all 4 goals today) and knocked it across from the left, seventeen Arsenal players plus Pat Rice and a ressurected Cliff Bastin all had a shot, each of which was successfully repelled by the multi limbed octopuses (octopi?) that Manure suddenly seemed to have in goal ... until suddenly Theo and Fabregas were punching the air and hugging, and the camera belatedly panned to
a linesman who was signalling a goal! It turned out the third or fourth of the seventeen strikes, this one from Gallas, has in fact crossed the line and been hacked out too late, Gallas unseen by those not in the ground had taken off confidently towards the manager to celebrate, the goal was officially given and the boys had once again pulled something out of the fire, at the death, against the toughest team in England, when all seemed as close to lost as possible for this team. 
Euphoria from all, and bloody deserved it was too.

2-2 final score, both teams no doubt fairly sausfied, Arsenal the superior team on the day but the Mancs no doubt feeling that they could have won it at 2-1 in the 90th minute.

Scores:

Almunia - Oh dear. In my opinion (please note that phrase before you reply with a whinge) he has a poor game, a game that just when you want to believe he may be good enough to stay as number one in the side, does enough to confirm those nagging doubts that he is not. Could have done better for the first goal, and was wild in his attempt to collect the ball for the second, unquestionably making a dangerous situation a clear cut gimme for the red scum. I have feared for some time that he may be a solid, competent keeper for the maority of games, but perhaps had a question mark over him for the massive, stressful encounters. Think today, think Manure at Highbury in the 4-2 horrorshow, think two wild and thankfully unpunished errors against the spuds this season, think 2 preventable goals against Barcelona in Paris .... I really want him to succeed, and I like him as a bloke, but for me he is a weak link when the big games roll around.
We  need a top drawer keeper. It´s not Jens anymore, so it better be Fabianski. I doubt it is. (4)

Sagna - AW´s best signing for 5 years. Has added so much to the team in defence, while losing not a drop of the go forward danger we had with Eboue last season.Absolute brilliance to set up the equaliser at 1-1. A real man amongst manly boys. (8)

Clichy - Again did very well with Ronaldo, posed danger in attack with crosses in both halves, made a good contribution to the 2-2 equaliser. (7)

Kolo - Typical Kolo. Quality. Gave Tevez and Rooney very little, was perhaps one of the whole backline to brainfreeze for Manure´s second goal, but can´t be expected to do everything, all the time. Some good forward forays too, as you would expect. (7)

Gallas - Looking better and better, but was outfoxed by Shrek for the opening goal in the game. It´s hard to combat a particularly clever movement such as that which shafted him for the red scum´s opener, but with all his experience you would hope he could handle it.Otherwise was calm in possession and popped up to strike a great shot to snatch the draw at the death, and any defender who can do that deserves bucketfuls of praise. Captain´s effort, that. As he clearly 
shouted to his immediate teammate´s at the final whistle, "never give up". Nice one Bill. (8)

Flamini - Another good performance, and an improvement on last week.Ran like vintage era Parlour, covering and scrapping all over the place. Better distribution than last week, got forward too but snatched at a chance in the second half. (7)

Rosicky - Unspectacular, but not poor either. Seems still to be feeling his way back, a little. A couple of shots which posed little trouble to Van Der Sar, and a few shabby passes. He may be struggling to retain his place assuming we revert back to 4-4-2 next week. (6)

Eboue - Better than last week, but then again last week he was a wimp, a prick and a twat all rolled into one so that´s not hard. Very useful ball to Ade leading up to our first goal, but I felt he was walking or jogging too much in the last 15 of the first half. I suspect he is also not 100% matchfit, otherwise he is being lazy ... which I wouldn´t put past him. Watch
him closely next game, he walks more than anyone else in the midfield. Only one instance of twattish remonstration with an opponent and got straight up from the one meaningful time he was fouled. Has AW been in his ear? (7)

Cesc - Was given less time and space on the ball than any other time all season, and still pretty much controlled possession and large periods of play. Was committed, too much so for the ref who clearly has been watching Scholes for so many years that he is unable to process the concept of a short, brilliant midfield linchpin being able to tackle fairly as well as score and set up countless goals. Earned a yellow for a late tackle on Anderson, which technically should get him an extra point in my scores, because I realised today that we have a new first class little Manc to despise in the dreadlocked midfielder from Brazil. What. A. Cnut. (Anderson). Was in the right place at the right time as always,knocked
away the first goal expertly, as always. (9)

Hleb - Like Cesc, was given less time and space than usual so had to work harder for his moments of magic.On a few occasions he appeared to have seriously dwelled too long on the ball, yet in 95% of those times he still managed to somehow emerge with possession. It was like watching a champion surfer at times, a wave of mancs would be all over him like flies, and it seemed he was buried and would never be able to come out without being dumped on his arse, yet suddenly there he was, stumbling but still with the ball stuck to his foot, and off he would go. Excellent work geting back in defence too, dispossessing opponents on more than a couple of occasions. Shows Tomas a thing or two, here.

Could quite feasibly have had a penalty in the first half as Vidic ripped off his shirt as he charged into the box, culminating in Hlebby going to ground, referee saw nothing though, no real surprise when playing Manure. (8)

Adebayor - No goals again for Ade, but I felt he was more in control of things than last week. Held up play well on countless occasions, linked well with teammates, caused no end of heartache for Jar Jar Binks and Vidic with his height, strength, perserverance and flat out gutsy running. A real team effort today from Ade, and his touch was sound today too. You really can´t fault a goalless performance on a day like today when he gives so much on his own up front. (8)

Subs:

Theo - A couple of flashes of danger from Theo in his 20 odd minutes.Was in the mix in the goalmouth scramble, and it´s a testament to Evra´s elephant sized balls that we conceded a second from the Frenchman´s forward surge, as the rest of the Mancs visibly drifted across and backwards in fear of what Theo might do given some space.

Eduardo - Had little impact, one ambitious left foot volley that never really looked like going in. Was only on the fringes really for his time on the field.

Gilberto - Came on to mop up possession and guide us to the 1-1, game finished 2-2 and he never smiled once. I´m now a bit worried about the Gilberto situation. When we scored the first goal, he was the least animated of all the subs, stopped clapping after only a couple of seconds, and didn´t look even a little bit happy about the goal. At the end when the players were arranging  themselves into the post match huddle, he held off, one arm half heartedly attached to his nearest  teammates, and could not wait to break away from the group. He just looked very unhappy to me, in a sad as
well as fed way. I hope he heard the massive cheer the crowd gave him when he came on, because he is a top bloke and I hope we keep hold of him.

My fingers are sore. I understand so much more about the perils of "Just Back" spoilers now, Brian :-)

I´m satisfied with the result, and with the performance, though I thought both goals were worrying, in that they were fairly isolated moments of threat that both came from a similar attack, and ended in us conceding.

You just cannot fault the heart in this side. The will to keep going.
I would like to name my dog Bacary. I would not like Almunia to be in charge of locking the gate.

Cheers

beNZed