This weekend Arsenal went to Craven Cottage to play Roy Hodgson’s well organised Fulham team, knowing full well that these are the games that make or break a season. Manchester United won last season’s title largely because of their superb record against the Premier League’s lesser teams, taking 70 from a possible 72 points against the bottom 12 clubs. The mini-table between the ’big four’ often barely figures: it’s the games against sides like Fulham, West Ham and Tottenham, the teams who make up the rest of the top half of the league, that are really important if Arsenal are going to sustain any sort of title challenge beyond December.

On Saturday afternoon the Gunners went to West London and put in a performance that a title-winning United side would have been proud of. They were outplayed for long stretches of the game, looked lethargic and uninterested, and were, for want of a better word, rubbish, but still came away with all three points in a win that could only be described as ‘smash and grab’. We are routinely reminded by moronic pundits that it’s games like this that are a fundamental part of any championship contender’s campaign: ‘you gotta win ugly’ is the refrain oft’ heard on the Match of the Day couch. ‘If you can play badly and win, consistently, then you’re going to be right up there at the end of the season’. Previous Arsenal teams have done their best to combine substance with style AND take maximum points week in week out, but as the experts are quick to point out, no team can play at 100% every week, and it’s the really good teams that can play at 50% and still win.

Arsenal ticked two boxes on the title challenge checklist yesterday: they beat a top ten side, away, and did it badly. It didn’t stop Alan ‘you don’t win anything with kids’ Hansen from glibly remarking that United looked much more convincing in their win at Stoke than Arsenal did, despite the fact that he offers little else in the way of punditry other than to remind viewers that champions ‘win ugly’.

Which is exactly what Arsenal did. So, in short, put that in your pipe and smoke it, Hansen.

That’s not to say I think Arsenal will win the league. Nonetheless, Saturday’s performance did much to assuage some nagging doubts that had crept over me after those two losses in Manchester.

The game itself was notable for a couple of things, namely Fabregas and Van Persie’s ability to make something out of nothing, and Vito Mannone’s excellent performance between the sticks.
It’s the same people who come out with those trite phrases about champions winning ugly that often say it’s the best players that can turn an awful individual performance into a brilliant one in the blink of an eye; whilst these two expressions are hackneyed to say the least, they are in part true. Van Persie and Fabregas had offered little going forward until, in the middle of the second half, a sublime lofted pass by the Spaniard was controlled beautifully by the Dutchman, and before the Fulham defence had a chance to stop him he had rolled it into the corner of the goal with his weaker right foot. From disappointing to magnificent in a matter of seconds. Whilst they may not have the reputation of Gerrard and Torres, or the power of Lampard and Drogba, Fabregas and Van Persie are the lynch-pins of Arsenal’s frontline, and it’s becoming increasingly clear, as at Chelsea and in particular Liverpool, that this talismanic duo of midfielder and striker must stay fit if we’re to have any success.

Mannone meanwhile staked his claim for the number one jersey after a ‘man of the match’ performance saw him make a string of excellent saves to keep Fulham’s strikers at bay and in turn ensure victory for Arsenal. It would be premature to just hand over a place in the first team to someone so young and inexperienced, but it’s reassuring all the same to know that if Almunia’s increasing unreliability continues there’s any able deputy ready to take his place.