For a while on Saturday, it looked as if clubs in a position to earn much-needed points were going to capitulate. First, Tottenham Hotspur -- in a race to try and finish fourth, a spot up for grabs between Spurs, Chelsea and Man City -- drew a blank at home against a reinvigorated West Ham side. Then United and Arsenal, the main teams in the hunt for the Premier League title, found themselves in tough positions. The Red Devils were locked in a 0-0 draw against Bolton when Jonny Evans was sent off with a straight red card, while Arsenal gave up two goals at the Hawthorns to give West Brom a seemingly commanding lead.
But as we've learned this season, you can't so much as blink or you'll miss another plot twist.
So it was that United rallied to win and Arsenal came back to tie.
There was no room for error for either side, and yet both teams committed big-time blunders. For United, the mistake came in the 76th minute when Evans went in, studs up, on American Stuart Holden. No protests, the Northern Irishman knew he was going to hit the showers early, as Holden was stretchered off the pitch. It was a needless, reckless challenge, and given how thin United's back line was before the game, with John O'Shea, Nemanja Vidic and Rafael all out with injury, Evans looks all the more the goat for what will now be a three-game suspension. The international break can't come soon enough for Alex Ferguson's side, as Vidic should be fit by the start of April.
On the whole, it was a cruel result for Bolton. The Wanderers were always going to be a tricky banana skin for United to navigate, and Owen Coyle's men played a predictably strong match. Gretar Steinsson was superb in containing Nani for most of the match, leading him down the line so he couldn't shift into the middle of the park and launch attacks. Center back Gary Cahill showed why he'll be a coveted target in the summer transfer window when he raced Dimitar Berbatov one-on-one toward the Bolton penalty box and made a perfectly timed challenge to see the danger away.
Cahill was also the source of controversy in the 10th minute when Nani took a shot in the Bolton box. As Cahill went in for the block the ball hit his left arm, which was extended away from his body. This was a clear handball, and United should have been given the opportunity for a penalty kick. But referee Andre Marriner thought otherwise.
Some may also have questioned why Ferguson -- sitting behind Man U chief executive David Gill in a high-rollers box and making a mockery of the touch-line ban by phoning in his directions to the coaching staff -- took off Javier Hernandez right at the start of the second half in favor of Berbatov. Chicharito was linking up well with Wayne Rooney. But clearly, SAF felt the urgency to get the win, so he freshened things up with the Bulgarian to try to energize what was perhaps a somewhat flat United side in the first half.
The move ultimately worked, but not before Matthew Taylor squandered a free header late in the second half, as United's defense was caught sleeping.
Still, down to 10 men, the Red Devils were creating more chances than Bolton. Nani, in particular, had freed himself of the shackle that was Steinsson and started to launch shots goal-bound, forcing keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen into a good save in the 87th minute. In a cruel twist of fate, a minute later Bolton's keeper spilled a rather routine shot from Nani, and Berbatov was the quickest to pounce, popping the ball into the goal and giving United the 1-0 victory.
At this time of the season, we're told that every game is basically a "must-win," but who's to really know which moments will turn out to be the decisive ones until we have the benefit of hindsight at the end of the season. But there can be no question that United's three points at Old Trafford were critically important, especially given that the Gunners dropped two points away at West Brom.
As both games were on at the same time, I watched most of this match with the benefit of picture-in-picture. That was a good thing -- Arsenal's defensive blunders didn't look as big and bad as they really were. The Gunners fell behind after just three minutes when Steven Reid popped a header into the goal off of a Chris Brunt corner.
Then Arsenal revived its production of Keystone Kops in the 58th minute, when emergency No. 1 Manuel Almunia raced 10 yards out of his penalty area to get the ball. He got mixed up with Sebastien Squillaci, as both of them failed to handle Youssuf Mulumbu's long ball. In the confusion, Peter Odemwingie put the ball into an untended net.
It's comical at this point, but how many times will Arsene Wenger sit on the sidelines and stomach howlers like this? Why, after all, did he sign Jens Lehmann -- who has returned from retirement this week -- if he wasn't going to play him? When the second Baggies goal went into the net, the camera panned over to Lehmann. What could he have been thinking? He had a bit of a smirk on his face, so you be the judge. And what were Gunners fans thinking? Everyone knows Almunia is a train wreck of a keeper, which is why he was benched a long time ago.
The longest-running one-liner in the Prem is the Arsenal defense -- it's the gift that keeps on giving.
Yes, the Gunners deserve credit for showing the guts to equalize on goals from Andrei Arshavin and Robin van Persie. But this is not the stage of the season to be gifting away two points.
So now we head into the international break. United can regroup and hope to get some defensive players back into shape, while Arsenal can rue yet another defensive blunder that cost it dearly.