FA PREMIERSHIP: Sometimes a little humility can spare a lot of humiliation. There is still a thing or two Arsene Wenger could learn from Alex Ferguson, and the most important is to operate the brain before the mouth.
Right now, Wenger's boast that Arsenal could go through the season unbeaten is a certain entry in the "Famous Last Words" section of Cassell's Sports Quotations.
Think back, too, to the United shareholder who accused Ferguson at last month's AGM of "wearing Rock Of Gibraltar's blinkers", a reference to his racehorse.
Or the first MUTV caller after that defeat by Manchester City who said they would never win the title under him again.
Old Trafford reeks of fickleness just now.
Losing to City had felt like a personal affront to Ferguson, but maybe one day he will convince himself it was worth the heartache.
"It has been the defining moment of our season," he says now. "We sorted out a few things in the dressing-room. I told them that enough was enough. Our form had to improve and I had to see it from every player."
One accusation which could never be levelled at Ferguson is that his sermons go unheeded. He says: "The reaction's been terrific. Everyone's worked so hard. The ability has always been there, but it was the hunger and desire I questioned. When we've got that, too, we can handle anything."
His players have used their recent ordeals as an exercise in character building. Across the pitch on Saturday, personal duels were being won, sometimes in the most unexpected quarters: John O'Shea against Freddie Ljungberg, Juan Sebastian Veron against Gilberto Silva, Mickael Silvestre against Thierry Henry and, most crucially, Phil Neville against Patrick Vieira.
"The manager put me in there to win tackles and make sure that Seba and Scholesy got enough of the ball and to quell their counter-attacks," said Neville.
If Wenger is canny, he'll emulate Ferguson in using adversity as a motivational tool. After all the talk of unbeaten sequences, Wenger's team have lost four league games, one more than they did in the whole of last season. Wenger was honest in his appraisal. "United suffered a lot because of us last season. They were more aggressive than us, more committed and won more 50-50 tackles."
What he could not offer was a reasonable account of why his players had failed to match their opponents.
What counts is what happens now. But there could be more problems for Arsenal if the FA decides that Martin Keown's flooring of Ruud van Nistelrooy merits a closer look.
Meanwhile, former Liverpool striker Kevin Keegan will see his Manchester City face his old club in the third round of the FA Cup after the teams were drawn against each other.
Elsewhere, Chelsea have been pitted against Middlesbrough in a repeat of the 1997 final which the Londoners won 2-0.
First division leaders Portsmouth will have an earlier than expected idea of what life in the Premiership is really like when they travel to Manchester United.
Guardian Service
