'If Wayne Rooney's 18th birthday had been lively, involving a dust-up at a Liverpool hotel, his 19th yesterday brought even more fireworks. As Old Trafford partied long and loud, Rooney blew out the candles on Arsenal's cake-walk across the land, winning a debatable penalty and striking an unanswerable second. At this rate of rising temperatures, Rooney's 20th is going to be a cancel-all-leave special.
For 73 minutes England's talented young forward had been quiet, seemingly unable to escape the attentions of Sol Campbell, when at last he found a half-yard of space. And so began a sequence of events that will always have Arsenal looking back in anger. Seizing on a slipped pass from Ryan Giggs, Rooney darted into the box, spreading panic.
Campbell, wrong-footed by Rooney's sudden change of direction, flicked out a leg blindly and the teenager went flying. Contact appeared minimal, if at all, but Campbell was always playing a risky game in dangling a leg in front of a speeding striker. Rooney went down as if hit by the Euston-Piccadilly express, incensing Arsenal's conspiracy theorists as Mike Riley gave his eighth penalty to United in eight visits to the Theatre of Dreams.
Any final vestiges of sportsmanship vainfully clinging to this fractious Premiership encounter disappeared in the red mist. Arsenal's outfield players resembled an angry picket line, screaming abuse at Riley, while Jan Lehmann sought to psyche out Ruud van Nistelrooy with some choice words. Germany v Holland is never cordial.
Mikael Silvestre, amazingly spotting what was happening from 80 yards away through a crowd of players, rushed forward to shepherd Lehmann away. Van Nistelrooy kept his focus and buried the ball low into the net. All the frustration at having squandered his spot-kick here last year evaporated as Van Nistelrooy celebrated wildly.
Moments of class did pierce the cordite trails. Reyes nutmegged Gary Neville while Bergkamp and Paul Scholes conjured up some passing beauty. Arsenal were handicapped because Thierry Henry was not at the races. Henry's listlessness looked particularly unfortunate when Van Nistelrooy put the hosts ahead. United defended the lead with their lives, throwing themselves into a series of blocks. Ferguson's men still looked to counter, and were denied a cast-iron penalty when Ashley Cole brought down the flying Ronaldo.
Lehmann saved well from Giggs but was left utterly exposed by a break deep into injury time, Rooney driving in his first league goal for United following a clever link-up between the substitutes, Louis Saha and Alan Smith.'