Arsenal can open up league

Arsenal yesterday boarded a train to Manchester needing two minor miracles. A victory over United at Old Trafford was one; the other was a Virgin train capable of getting them there in time for today's 11.15 a.m. kick-off. But now is the time to gamble.

The Manchester bookie who paid out on United winning the championship could yet be knocking on a few doors to ask for his money back. The two clenched fists with which Arsene Wenger uncharacteristically greeted Arsenal's victory over Wimbledon on Wednesday night marked the coming back to life of a torpid title race.

Wenger, a gentle teaser of over-excited scribes, was not in playful mood at the team's headquarters yesterday. "He just wants to talk about the football, not mind games," we were warned.

Arsenal finally departed London fields after eight successive games in the capital for a match that will surely make or break their chances of seizing the title, though Wenger, as he must, denies it. "If we lose, it puts us in a hard position but it's not mathematically over," he said. "I said a few weeks ago that it is not over. This is an important game but not a decisive one."

Behind the measured words this is a club bursting out of its skin, like Alexei Sayle in one of his tightest suits.

They are building a new training ground and have put in a bid to buy Wembley for all their disenfranchised fans. They are nine points behind United with three games in hand and are two games away from an FA Cup final appearance. Two months of mayhem lie ahead, but with a possible double glinting at the road's end.

United hold the initiative, and the bookmakers still see them as impregnable, but current trends favour Arsenal. Of the 92 league clubs, they and Notts County alone have managed to keep their total of defeats down to four (United have lost six). Alex Ferguson's team have taken only 11 points from a possible 24 in their last eight games and scored just seven goals.

Trevor Francis described Arsenal's first-half performance against Wimbledon as "as good as I've seen by a Premiership side this season". Up the road in east London, United were labouring to a 1-1 draw with West Ham.

"We had a very good first half, but I don't agree it's the best we've played all season," says Wenger. "We did play at a high level, though. What pleased me was that we were dangerous and created chances and also solid.

"Apart from a bad spell, we have shown consistency. In 17 games now, we have lost only at Chelsea `in the Coca-Cola Cup'. At the beginning of the season we went 15 games without losing. This year the team is coping better. Last year we went out of the FA and Coca-Cola cups early but this year we were in the semi-finals of one and the quarters of the other. And yet we are still challenging for the league."

It's not just Sky and Premier League marketing gurus who will consider this captivating stuff. "We are lucky because Manchester United have a big game after the one "against us," said Wenger. He was referring to the visit of Monaco in Wednesday's Champions League quarterfinal second leg. "It's a big worry for them, and they will have that game in mind."

By this stage, managers are usually moaning about everything from calf strains to the bubonic plague. Wenger's squad, however, is not disintegrating but budding with the spring. Nigel Winterburn and Alex Manninger trained fully yesterday and David Seaman and Steve Bould are likely to be back next week.

Moreover, some of Wenger's riskier foreign imports are contributing more fully than the sceptics imagined they would. Christopher Wreh scored their only goal against Wimbledon and Emmanuel Petit looks increasingly assured in the centre, where he will have to deal today with United's tigerish midfield.

Optimistic though he is, Wenger will have avoided any bookies on yesterday's train journey to Manchester. The odds-board makes grim reading for Arsenal. They are a huge 4 to 1 to win at Old Trafford, which implies some sort of backlash is about to hit them, and United are, at best, 6 to 1 to retain the title.

Fred Done, the bookmaker who has already paid out, insists that he has "Done" the right thing. He is inviting more ignominy by offering 8 to 1 Arsenal to win the league - the best price available anywhere. Five of United's remaining eight games are at Old Trafford. For Arsenal the possession of three games in hand sounds grand until one considers they will have to go out and win them.

Wenger believes that all neutrals will support Arsenal this morning because a victory for them will "make the league more interesting". Though not keen to play mind games, he did point out that United "have shown less consistency in the last two months".

A quiet night in Manchester was disturbed only by one devilish dilemma: whether to play Wreh or Nicolas Anelka up front alongside Dennis Bergkamp. Being playful at last, Wenger told us: "I hope the God of football will visit me in my sleep and tell me what to do."