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DESPITE everything, Arsene Wenger just about managed to keep his sense of humour.
It may appear he is ready to fight the world right now but the Arsenal chief confined himself to merely kicking out at a water bottle on Saturday.
"And I thought it was a pretty good shot," joked the man whose playing career consisted of a dozen pro games with Strasbourg.
Yes, we had his late, farcical sending off and the normal gripes about the failure of ref Mike Dean to award a penalty for a foul on Andrey Arshavin, the general robust tackling of Darren Fletcher and, going back a few days, UEFA's decision to use video evidence to rule on Eduardo's dive against Celtic.
But, underneath it all, he won't be too devastated by Arsenal's unlucky 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford.
For he knows Arsenal were by far the better team and, on most other days, would have come away from Old Trafford with all three points.
He also knows United's continued good fortune at home - the late goals against Villa and the Michael Carrick penalty that never was against Spurs in the title run-in last season - cannot go on indefinitely.
Yes, there is an art to winning when you are not playing well but this was taking it to the extreme.
If anything, there are more questions to be asked about United after another fluke victory on the back of a penalty conceded by the latest rush of blood from goalkeeper Manuel Almunia and an inexplicable own goal from the impressive Abou Diaby.
On this sort of form, United will struggle to retain their title - and might even have some problems negotiating tricky Champions League trips to CSKA Moscow, Besiktas and Wolfsburg.
But for a remarkable one-footed save by Ben Foster from Robin van Persie early in the second half, United would have been 2-0 down and out of the game.
The other encouraging news for Arsenal is that they controlled the game for long spells through the free-flowing efforts of three midfield players - Denilson, Diaby and Alex Song - with an average age of 22.
And, bearing in mind the huge interest of Barcelona in their skipper, they managed to do it without Cesc Fabregas.
But there are still some concerns.
Despite the natural ability of their embryonic midfield, they do tend to give the ball away too easily at times.
Though, on Saturday, this was offset by United's own determination to give it straight back to them.
Near the end, this casualness spread to sub Aaron Ramsey - the 18-year-old's lazy, misdirected cross setting up a United break from which Nani should have netted to rub even more salt into the wounds.
And then there's Almunia.
With a keeper called Manuel and a manager who does a fair impersonation of Basil Fawlty, it was little surprise Arsenal's defending had a touch of Fawlty Towers about it.
Almunia should never have come charging off his line the way he did to haul down Wayne Rooney. And the Spaniard - rooted to his line - failed comprehensively to take charge of his area for the Ryan Giggs free-kick that saw Diaby head home spectacularly.
More compelling evidence that Arsenal require a new keeper.
As for Wenger's "sending off", what actually gets hold of busy little fourth officials like Lee Probert?
For God's sake, there were only THIRTY seconds left.
And if we sent a manager to the stands every time one of them kicked a water bottle - or got involved in anything else similarly innocuous - there would be no one left in the dugout.
Yet when the dust finally settles - and despite the obvious loss of three points - Wenger may take more out of this game in the long term than Alex Ferguson.
It may appear he is ready to fight the world right now but the Arsenal chief confined himself to merely kicking out at a water bottle on Saturday.
"And I thought it was a pretty good shot," joked the man whose playing career consisted of a dozen pro games with Strasbourg.
Yes, we had his late, farcical sending off and the normal gripes about the failure of ref Mike Dean to award a penalty for a foul on Andrey Arshavin, the general robust tackling of Darren Fletcher and, going back a few days, UEFA's decision to use video evidence to rule on Eduardo's dive against Celtic.
But, underneath it all, he won't be too devastated by Arsenal's unlucky 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford.
For he knows Arsenal were by far the better team and, on most other days, would have come away from Old Trafford with all three points.
He also knows United's continued good fortune at home - the late goals against Villa and the Michael Carrick penalty that never was against Spurs in the title run-in last season - cannot go on indefinitely.
Yes, there is an art to winning when you are not playing well but this was taking it to the extreme.
If anything, there are more questions to be asked about United after another fluke victory on the back of a penalty conceded by the latest rush of blood from goalkeeper Manuel Almunia and an inexplicable own goal from the impressive Abou Diaby.
On this sort of form, United will struggle to retain their title - and might even have some problems negotiating tricky Champions League trips to CSKA Moscow, Besiktas and Wolfsburg.
But for a remarkable one-footed save by Ben Foster from Robin van Persie early in the second half, United would have been 2-0 down and out of the game.
The other encouraging news for Arsenal is that they controlled the game for long spells through the free-flowing efforts of three midfield players - Denilson, Diaby and Alex Song - with an average age of 22.
And, bearing in mind the huge interest of Barcelona in their skipper, they managed to do it without Cesc Fabregas.
But there are still some concerns.
Despite the natural ability of their embryonic midfield, they do tend to give the ball away too easily at times.
Though, on Saturday, this was offset by United's own determination to give it straight back to them.
Near the end, this casualness spread to sub Aaron Ramsey - the 18-year-old's lazy, misdirected cross setting up a United break from which Nani should have netted to rub even more salt into the wounds.
And then there's Almunia.
With a keeper called Manuel and a manager who does a fair impersonation of Basil Fawlty, it was little surprise Arsenal's defending had a touch of Fawlty Towers about it.
Almunia should never have come charging off his line the way he did to haul down Wayne Rooney. And the Spaniard - rooted to his line - failed comprehensively to take charge of his area for the Ryan Giggs free-kick that saw Diaby head home spectacularly.
More compelling evidence that Arsenal require a new keeper.
As for Wenger's "sending off", what actually gets hold of busy little fourth officials like Lee Probert?
For God's sake, there were only THIRTY seconds left.
And if we sent a manager to the stands every time one of them kicked a water bottle - or got involved in anything else similarly innocuous - there would be no one left in the dugout.
Yet when the dust finally settles - and despite the obvious loss of three points - Wenger may take more out of this game in the long term than Alex Ferguson.
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