Arsenal reeling as brawlers slug it out

Yet, given those 11 bookings, the abiding impression of the match was incongruously about the football rather than the fouls. Arsenal should so obviously have won.

All four of those bookings in the first 18 minutes were Leeds names, at at a time when the home side were clearly in control of the game.

Leeds were losing their rag, and Arsenal should have capitalised both on that and their own superiority.

Instead, Leeds went ahead through a free-kick both given and taken under bizarre circumstances. For a start, nobody seemed terribly clear what it was given for. Then Ian Harte took the kick without waiting for Mr Winter to give the official go-ahead. David Seaman was still arranging his wall, most of whom were a mere five yards from the ball and were looking towards the goal rather than Harte.

Seaman, loudly announced in the team line-up as "England's number one" - presumably as a pointed message to Nigel Martyn at the other end - looked distinctly number twos. Arsenal's equaliser was hardly indicative of the authority with which they had previously commanded the game. Ashley Cole sent the ball into the area in a halfhearted attempt at a shot, and Sylvain Wiltord managed to head it home. All done rather more in vague hope than with elegant intention - an unwitting sign of things to come for the home side. Nonetheless the first half was satisfying to witness.

After the break Arsenal seemed to flag even as United's appetite for victory grew. Mark Viduka, who missed at least one good chance in the first half, put away an 18-yarder from a Harry Kewell pass on 52 minutes, and from then on the writing was on the wall.

Four Arsenal names found their way into Mr Winter's well-thumbed book, and increasingly the team resorted merely to punting the ball upfield. Mr Winter could have sent the entire Leeds team from the field, and Arsenal still might not have scored.

Perhaps it was the glow of gritty victory which permitted David O'Leary to adopt an elaborately magnanimous stance after the match.

He prattled on about what a great club Arsenal are, their marvellous history, their wonderful players, and how he would love to buy Vieira if only he had the opportunity. (Careful, David. Don't want to be done for tapping up Vieira.) He made a point of saying that several of the bookings for both teams were questionable.

Hearing him refer to "some of their bookings and some of ours" was a useful reminder of the extraordinary nature of the game, as if dozens of yellows are the norm in every match.

Yet among the refereeing community they are indeed the norm whenever this match comes around.

At this rate perhaps the Football Association should treat the next chapter in the Leeds-Arsenal story rather as FIFA did the match between Iran and the USA during France 98.

There the authorities bent over backwards to emphasise this was Just Another Match, which wasn't awfully convincing thanks to the carefully choreographed pre-match formalities.

Each player exchanged a bouquet and a beribboned gift with his opposite number, before a superchummy official photograph in which the teams mingled with their arms around one another's shoulders.

I feel sure this could work with Leeds and Arsenal. The only difficulty is which team gets to be Iran, who overturned the odds to stuff the hated Yanks in a victory which saw unprecedented nationwide rejoicing and went down in Iranian history.

Perhaps it would be simpler for the FA to call in the UN.