Feuding brawl boys shame the game

But not as potentially damaging, I would suggest, as the tackle by Ruud van Nistelrooy on Ashley Cole. Referee Mike Riley missed the significance of that - and of several other important incidents. The Dutchman should not have been on the field to score the penalty that Wayne Rooney conned out of Riley.

It's debatable, too, whether Rio Ferdinand should have been on the field after body checking Freddie Ljungberg. Wenger and his players felt rightly aggrieved but, again, their after-match reaction loses them much of the sympathy vote. Better surely to accept defeat with dignity rather than throw sandwiches at the opposition!

This was another unedifying chapter in the low-rent soap opera involving these two clubs. The loss of Arsenal's proud record was a sad consequenceof an undeserved defeat, but not as sad as this latest evidence of the declining standards of behaviour in professional football.

After the game, Wenger had the look of a man who had just had his pocket picked and was trying to work out how and when it happened.

Following the penalty, Rooney struck again with a goal that finally ended any hope Arsenal had of extending their unbeaten run of 49 Premiership matches.

"We're disappointed because we were the better team," insisted the Arsenal manager. "But the referee's decisions made all the difference."

To be fair to the referee, it was a difficult game to officiate with players from both sides contesting so many decisions. Ferguson said: "For a long period it seemed that Patrick Vieira was in charge of things."

But United were not innocents in this matter. They had their own provocateurs. The truth is that players from both sides question the referee's decisions so frequently in these matches that, when it really matters, their complaints and protestations count for little.

Campbell's reaction when birthday boy Rooney - 19 yesterday - tumbled to the ground told you everything you needed to know about the decisive moment in the match. The defender was genuinely gobsmacked, but it carried no weight with Riley. "Rooney told my players afterwards that he'd not been touched," said Wenger. "They have a feeling of deep injustice. They feel frustrated, but I think it will make them stronger.

"We were the better team but the penalty was the turning point. Before that we looked the more likely to win. It feels like we've been robbed."

Riley, one of the Premiership's most experienced officials, has a history of awarding the home side penalties at Old Trafford. He once gave United two in one game against Liverpool.

United desperately needed all three points to close the gap on Arsenal yesterday and the more desperate they became the more risks they took.

This, of course, presented more attacking chances to the Gunners. But while they had a lot of possession they were unable to get behind the United defence. One of the reasons for this was the outstanding form of the centre-back partnership of Ferdinand and Mikael Silvestre.

Ferguson and watching England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson must be delighted with Ferdinand's form after his eight-month suspension for missing a drugs test. The England defender did as much as anyone to end Arsenal's unbeaten run.

Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry had goalscoring chances and although Arsenal's football was superior that will be little consolation today.

Van Nistelrooy's penalty and Rooney's tap-in goal in injury time might have satisfied the Old Trafford loyalists but Ferguson knows that more big improvements are required if United are to re-ignite their Premiership hopes.