THE INDEPENDENT
Chelsea seized back control of the Premiership title race yesterday but it seems that no one has yet convinced Wayne Rooney that his season is over. When Sir Alex Ferguson calls upon his players to have faith in that faint possibility that Jose Mourinho's team may yet stumble, there is no more fervent believer than the 20-year-old striker who scored one goal yesterday and made another for Park Ji-Sung.
It was a daunting challenge that Chelsea's 10 men laid down at Stamford Bridge in their defeat of West Ham earlier in the day but, even if their pursuit of the champions is ultimately in vain, yesterday told United that this is a fight that is not worth giving up just yet. Asked whether his old rivals still have a chance of the Premiership title, Arsène Wenger indicated with forefinger and thumb that he regards that chance as, he added, "very little" - yet they seem to be odds United are willing to take on.
They were led by Rooney who may, just for the sake of his bank manager, wish to forget about any more talk of odds until the end of the season at least. The nerveless disposition that he has demonstrated in front of goal has brought him far fewer rewards at the bookmakers to whom, it was disclosed yesterday, his debts are as much as £700,000. Yesterday, neither Chelsea's 10-point lead - as it stood at the start of the game - nor the eye-watering amount he owes seemed to burden the man who has led United's revival this season.
In the great tradition of United's encounters with Arsenal this will not rate as a classic - downgraded by the significance that Chelsea's supremacy has stolen from these two teams and Wenger's baffling decision to start with Thierry Henry on the substitutes' bench. It was a decision that looked like a gesture of contempt towards Jose Mourinho - who will have been furious at his title rivals playing a weakened Arsenal team - as well as a signal that Wenger has now firmly switched his priorities to the Champions' League.
In the event of defeat, Wenger looked no less devastated than he normally does when beaten by Ferguson; he stalked the touchline for much of the game, a harassed, disputatious figure. So why rest Henry? He argued that his captain's presence would not have been decisive in the goals that Arsenal conceded although it surely would have made some difference to the chances that Robin van Persie, starting in the Premiership for the first time since 1 February, passed up
Arsenal are still five points behind Tottenham with a game in hand in the race for the fourth Champions' League place - and their rivals have to visit Highbury - which Wenger must have considered sufficiently surmountable to rest Henry yesterday. The visit to Portsmouth this week, however, would still appear to be the better option for leaving out a player who came on for the last 20 minutes and barely broke into a sprint.
Had the title race been closer than the seven-point lead Chelsea have, Wenger's decision to leave out Henry against United would have done nothing to ease the paranoia of Mourinho. He believes that the Arsenal manager does everything in his power to undermine Chelsea and it is an issue on which the Portuguese coach may yet have his say. At the final whistle, Wenger waited patiently to shake Ferguson's hand. If he was hoping for thanks from the United manager for leaving out Arsenal's inspirational No 14 then he was likely to have been disappointed.
THE TIMES
Manchester United were still backing themselves to overcome Chelsea at the top of the Premiership last night, but it remains the sort of bet that has already cost Wayne Rooney £700,000 this season. It is a long shot, even if Rooney is doing everything possible to upset the odds.
Backing United to continue their run of seven consecutive league victories makes perfect sense, particularly with Rooney in such sensational form, but it is the idea of Chelsea blowing up that is so hard to imagine. José Mourinho's team responded well to the pressure yesterday when they were a goal and a man down against West Ham United. They recovered to win 4-1 and, whatever other deficiencies they may have, they have not lacked mettle under the Portuguese.
The trip to Bolton Wanderers on Saturday looks treacherous for the champions, but no more so than United's visit to Tottenham Hotspur on Easter Monday. There is some hope for the pursuers, but you know that Sir Alex Ferguson must be desperate when he is seeking favours from Alan Shearer.
Newcastle United play hosts to Chelsea on the last day of the season and the United manager suggested that Shearer's farewell match could provide a dramatic denouement. "We still need a collapse," Ferguson said. "But you never know."
The Scot was bouyant after what he hailed as "a great performance" to beat Arsenal. It was a great game all round, with Arsenal starting superbly but succumbing to the indefatigable, inspired Rooney. "He was absolutely sensational at times today," Ferguson said of his striker who, when he was not scoring or creating at one end, was making crucial tackles at the back.
More than 70,000 were packed into Old Trafford, the biggest crowd to watch United since 1920, and they were in for a treat. A lousy gambler, Rooney is on course to become one of the great British footballers.
He had to wait to make his impact. Even with Thierry Henry rested on the bench — a surprising decision but perhaps understandable, given the busy programme ahead — Arsenal immediately picked up the pace from their Champions League exploits and made United look cumbersome in the first 20 minutes. Nemanja Vidic was looking vulnerable to Arsenal's movement and it was as well for the centre half that Gary Neville was on hand to steal the ball away from Emmanuel Adebayor.
THE GUARDIAN
Arsenal must be developing a tax exile's taste for foreign parts. They could never make themselves as comfortable at Old Trafford as they had in the Bernabéu or the Stadio delle Alpi. Manchester United fully deserved this win that gives them a run of nine Premiership victories in a row. The visitors, following the midweek Champions League match, did wane in the second half here but United had made absolutely sure that they would tire.
It could all have gone wrong for Arsenal even sooner than it did. The fixture did not bedevil the referee as it has done in its unruly past but Graham Poll should still have left the ground with his mind churning. By then he would have heard all about his 43rd-minute error, when he failed to see that the defender Kolo Touré had palmed Wayne Rooney's shot on to the post with a dive that would have done credit to a goalkeeper. At least we now know why the Ivorian wears gloves.
The official should be glad that United ensured the lapse will be remembered as an idiosyncrasy rather than a critical episode. There were overtones of past grandeur in the side's hyperactive domination. The players were not diverted from their task by suave, if unproductive, opening manoeuvres by Arsenal.
Sir Alex Ferguson's team, seven points adrift, continue to chase Chelsea in the Premiership and, if that pursuit should turn out to be futile, they are at least hurrying themselves towards a better future. Quiet satisfactions abounded and one of several assertive tackles by the new centre-half Nemanja Vidic paved the way for the opener. It was also, of course, a game for uproarious joys before a crowd of 70,908 that is the largest league attendance to convene at Old Trafford.
There is no longer a Roy Keane or even a Phil Neville in the United midfield and Alan Smith is injured but this was still a gruelling occasion for Arsenal. Rooney, in his own way, made Arsenal flinch once again at this venue. The United forward has such an appetite for involvement that he even had a cameo role in the most threatening moment for Wenger's side.
With the score at 1-0 in the 60th minute, Robin van Persie, at the far post, failed to convert a low cross from Emmanuel Eboué. The right-back had broken clear only after escaping a challenge by Rooney. United's forward will berate himself but it was extraordinary that he had the desire to get himself back into so deep a defensive position. Nearly any other attacker in the Premiership would treat that as someone else's duty.
THE TELEGRAPH
Wayne Rooney awoke yesterday to a blizzard of headlines about his alleged betting habits and then, gloriously, showed why everyone will be putting their shirt on him this World Cup summer. Rooney was at his bewitching best against Arsenal, scoring a magnificent goal and then creating Park Ji-sung's second.
The most controversial gambling being done yesterday was by Arsene Wenger, omitting Thierry Henry from his starting XI at a period of the season when the stakes are so high. It was like watching the Rolling Stones without Mick Jagger: terrific backing but no front-man; no satisfaction.
Wenger's decision to ease up in the league was patently a risk as Arsenal cannot bank simply on lifting the European Cup in Paris on May 17 to guarantee qualification for next year's Champions League. Villarreal, and probably Barcelona, bar their way. Arsenal need to finish fourth to remain among Europe's elite.
The day after Tottenham Hotspur tightened their grip on fourth place, Wenger's sheathing of Arsenal's sharpest attacking weapon seemed bizarre, particularly when faced with United's team-sheet. There amid the mediocre cast members of the Theatre of Dreams, like John O'Shea and Nemanja Vidic, was the name of a leading light, Rooney, a top-of-the-bill star.
United's No 8 and his colleagues could have been forgiven for feeling flat after Chelsea's stunning victory over West Ham United. No chance. Not with Rooney around. Fears of a damp squib were blown away as Rooney opened his box of fireworks for another record audience to admire the spectacle. An obvious worry laces such worship. An injury to Rooney would be catastrophic. It is hard to remember when United were so reliant on the brilliance of one maestro. Perhaps back in the days when Eric Cantona was in his upturned-collared pomp. Possibly back to when George Best was gliding over European and domestic fields, although the late, great Northern Ireland winger formed part of a Holy Trinity.
Rooney is different. He alone of Sir Alex Ferguson's players would be coveted by Chelsea, Arsenal or Liverpool. No one in the United dressing room comes close to Rooney's formidable match-day armoury. He scores, creates, competes, tackles back, even making clearing headers deep in injury-time. Cristiano Ronaldo was magnificent in flashes yesterday while the versatile Ryan Giggs continues to impress, but they lacked the sustained excellence of Rooney. A gasp of disbelief swept Old Trafford when he finally miscontrolled a pass - but it was in the 85th minute. Until then, Rooney's contribution had touched sublime heights as the England international dismantled a defence that has not been breached in Europe for eight games.
The England striker willingly raged against the dying of United's Premiership light, running at Arsenal time and again, and was desperately unlucky not to have a brace by the break. Having already tested Jens Lehmann's reflexes with a low stinging shot, Rooney timed his next break brilliantly, running into a gap momentarily vacated by Philippe Senderos and seizing on Ruud van Nistelrooy's through pass.