ONE thing you can guarantee about being an Arsenal fan is that if you travel to Old Trafford with a long unbeaten record to defend you will inevitably lose. It has happened in 1987, 2004 and now in 2013.
Usually it is a controversial penalty or a harsh red card, the type of which only befalls an away side at Old Trafford. Often it has been the result of being bullied off the park. But this one had none of the above ingredients although the end result was still the same; an unfortunate defeat.
I stupidly believed that with Fergie no longer at the helm, the curse would be broken. But no. Apparently it goes much deeper than that. The virus which had swept through the squad, robbing us of the services of Mertesacker and Rosicky - both outstanding in midweek in Dortmund - showed there was an even darker force at work.
My previous visit to Salford had been for the 8-2 in August 2011 so the exorcising of demons was the order of the day. And I was confident too. Our recent form coupled with United's shaky start under Moyes meant I felt we would never have a better chance of winning here.
Perhaps we deserved little from the first half performance; as poor as we have played all season. But let's get it right, United were no better. Szczesny did not have a save to make and the goal, when it arrived, was a simple set piece inevitably scored by van Persie.
I must have been the only one in the away end not too upset that Robin had scored. Right from the start I have never joined in with the 'She said no...' chants and I have never wished any ill on the man. I respected his decision to leave and his title medal certainly justifies it.
My pre-match wish had been to see us win, obviously, but also to see van Persie score. In fact just seeing him play again live - having missed both meetings last season - was a privilege. Whatever you think about him now the guy was an Arsenal legend and is still a world class footballer.
I was not too concerned at half time. I knew we would play better in the second half and so we did. Right from the start we showed the urgency so sadly lacking before and the game was played out almost entirely in their half.
But something was missing. Ozil was off the pace, Ramsey not firing. Giroud lacked support. Despite that, we still should have come away with something.
The introduction of Jack on the hour at last gave us someone willing to run at defenders and slowly the chances came. Ozil fired into the side netting while two quality deliveries from Sagna on the right should have brought the equaliser - Gibbs and Bendtner both unable to get anything on the ball inside the 6-yard box when any touch would have seen us level.
Inevitably they had one or two opportunities on the break; Rooney firing wide after doing well to create space on the edge of the box and Smalling completely missing a far post header, but again Szczesny was virtually unemployed (unusual for a Pole in Manchester).
So while not the result we were hoping for, this defeat at Old Trafford did not hurt nearly as much as most of the others. I left with a weird sense of pride at having seen us dominate a half of football here. Not even in the glory days of Vieira and Henry did we manage that.
Despite a tough week and a weakened squad due to illness we gave a good account of ourselves. On another day we might even have won. United mustered just 2 efforts at goal. I wonder when the last time that happened at Old Trafford.
A week or so ago many were predicting three defeats, so to have come out of it with 2 wins and a narrow defeat is a good effort. We have faced strikers of the quality of Suarez, Lewandoski, Rooney and van Persie and conceded just one goal; not bad for a side who cannot defend.
On top of that we need to remember that the international break will see some key players return from injury; Walcott, Podolski, Ox. Imagine if any of those had been fit to come off the bench yesterday?
So it is not a time to panic. We are still top of the league and look like staying there for the foreseeable future. It is never nice losing, especially against them, but did we honestly expect any other outcome? After all we never win here, especially on the back of a long unbeaten run.
Now we must hope that unlike in 1987 and 2004, defeat here does not lead to a collapse. I do not believe it will as we appear to have a strong inner belief about us now, but I guess only time will tell.
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