The Beauty in Ugly

Forget the flowing, free-scoring football that intermittently elevates us to the top headlines - this weekend was the biggest indicator yet that we could be genuine title contenders this season.

This time last season, we were losing games like this every other week. Our defence was leaking goals against lesser teams, and we struggled to take our chances when playing away from home. Yesterday, a moment of magic from Cesc and Robin early in the second half handed us an unlikely victory, but it was our 21-year-old goalkeeper, in his first away game in the Premiership, who single-handedly kept out the opposition forwards and ensured we went home with three points.

Fulham were throwing everything they had at him, but Mannone spread his arms, puffed out his manboobs and repelled shot after shot. He took knock after knock, with the physios surrounding him several times, but each time he would climb to his feet and return to his post between the posts. I half expected him to end up with a broken leg, most likely from a collision with Bobby Zamora, only to indignantly shove the stretcher out of the physios' hands, ignore their pleas for common sense, and crawl back to the goal line, clinging determinedly on to the net as his teammates and club doctors tried to prise him from the goal.

After ten minutes, a cross whipped in, destined to land about ten yards outside his goal. Mannone dived forward, ignoring Gallas' attempt to clear the ball directly into his own net, and threw himself on top of both the ball and his teammate. The defender's eyes bulged with primal fear, his hand clutching his heart as he struggling with every breath having felt the force of the young behemoth from Desio.

From then on, Mannone ran the show. He screamed orders at every set piece, a trembling Gallas nodding and conveying his messages to the rest of the defence. Vermaelen, Song and their fellow markers would silently oblige, all the while avoiding the glare of Mannone's piercing black eyes.

Six minutes later, a cross looped over the defence, headed for the centre of the area. Johnson glanced it across Mannone, but he dived like a man possessed to protect his goal; and when the ball then ricocheted between Sagna and Dempsey, only for the latter to smash it goalwards with an outstretched foot, the dazed Mannone clambered to his feet with just enough time to raise an uncertain fist and deflect the shot to safety.

"10 out of 10," Wenger said. The first time an Arsenal goalkeeper has grabbed the headlines for the right reasons since David Seaman, and the first time the team has won ugly since our last trophy...