Whilst the Arsenal fielded the youngest side ever in the Club's history will all but two of the players under the age of 21, the opposition, consisted of a World Cup winner (that cost £7 million I may hasten to add) and seven other full internationals with close on 200 caps not to mention a good 450 first team appearances for United between them.
For all that, I thought that Arsenal's youngsters acquitted themselves fairly well despite the comedy of errors that led to the goal that won the game for our opponents.
Credit, first and foremost, has to go to young Johan Djourou. It would have been easy, in front of 67,000 people, for a 17-year old lad like him to go to pieces when his lapse in concentration triggered off a costly chain of calamitous events so early on in the piece but to his credit he stuck to his task very well after that. His central defensive partner, Senderos, also had a fairly dodgy start too but he too improved as the game went on. Both of the showed a commendable amount of character and with ongoing tuition only a brave man will dismiss their prospects of being future Arsenal centre-backs
Many observers were divided in their opinion over the contribution of Flamini on the night but I was very much of the thinking that this lad is an Arsenal warrior in the making. There were times when he was competing against Djemba-Djemba, Liam Miller and Kleberson in midfield on his own what with his midfield partner, Seb Larsson, struggled throughout to get to grips with the pace of the game. I don't think that he will let the Club down if and when he is called upon.
It was also great to see young Clichy back. He was our outstanding player on the night and I will be very surprised of this boy isn't called upon in the very near future in some capacity at first team level. Believe me; we are very lucky to have this boy waiting around in the wings.
The only minor disappointments, for me, were Quincy and Van Persie. I thought that Sky pundit Ray Wilkins was spot on particularly in his assessment of Van Persie. Like me, Wilkins believes that Van Persie has huge potential but he said that if he is going to be world class one day he has to realise that he can't look to do fancy things every time he gets the ball.
In young Van Persie's defence what I will say is that I think he was trying a little too hard if anything on the night and he was trying to force situations which were not quite there instead of relaxing and letting things come more naturally and his much publicised spat with Kieron Richardson was borne out of frustration.
Typically, large sections of the press couldn't stop themselves from portraying Wednesday's game as further evidence of Arsenal's demise. And, all the while, the stock of our title rivals continues to grow.
Not only are the press and the media openly embracing the prospect of the Phoney Russian Franchise winning four trophies they are actively using them once again as a weapon in their quest to undermine the Arsenal.
I did have to giggle at the comments Jose Mourinho made in the media on Thursday though. There he was crowing about both ManUre and his "club" having big strong squads where as Arsenal's squad is bolstered by mostly untried youngsters.
Well, far be it from me to point out the obvious but both Mourinho's "club" and ManUre have spent over £400 million between them in the last three and a half years alone.
Of that £400 million, Mourinho himself spent £70 million which in turn happens to be twice the amount Arsenal have spent in the same period. I am almost moved to give Mourinho total credit for his perceptions on Arsenal but I think that I will discreetly refrain from doing so for three reasons.
Firstly, for a man who calls himself The Special One and is widely reputed to be the biggest know-all in football today, how comes it took him the best part of six months to publicly draw such an obvious conclusion about us?
Secondly, reading between the lines, I think that if you take Mourinho's "stunning" observation and his own spending activity in the summer into account, he has only served to uphold what every rational football supporter in the land knows - that money is at the root of everything that his "club" stands for and what they hope to achieve.
And thirdly, even if Mourinho is therefore trying to insinuate that the Arsenal do not have the right to be anywhere near either his "club" or ManUre when it comes to competing for major honours given their respective financial clout and the "superior" squads well, I've got news for him - that's exactly what the press and the media were saying when Abramovich first arrived 18 months ago.
None of this stopped Arsenal becoming Champions and therefore being the most successful club in this country over the last three years. And, Guess what? In spite of Mourinho's observations the fact remains, in spite of all our recent problems, that we are, contrary to popular belief in the press and the media, still well in the frame to become Champions again.
Given that we have only just entered into December I am quite happy to settle for that and it will be cold day in hell before I concede anything this early, particularly to a jumped up, middle of the road club from West London.
This brings me round to Saturday's league game at home to Steve Bruce's Birmingham.
Despite yet another influx of players during the summer, The Bluenoses have not had the best of times over the last seven or eight months.
Though I honestly haven't been able to keep track of the many comings and goings up at St.Andrews, they have had, without doubt, one of the busiest treatment rooms in the country.
Amongst the catalogue of injuries they have had there is little doubt that the injury that accounted for Mikael Forssel's enforced long term absence has hit them hardest of all, certainly when it comes to scoring goals. That, despite the recent acquisitions of Heskey and Yorke to go alongside Clinton Morrison, has predominantly been the Blues' problem all season long and is a large factor in their stunted progress this season.
The upside is that the injury prone David Dunn is back in the ranks. He's a guy that definitely seems to like Highbury. He scored against us for Blackburn in a 3-3 draw there a couple of years back and last season I thought he was Birmingham's best player in the goalless draw at Highbury last May.
It was interesting to hear Matthew Upson claiming earlier on this week that leaving Arsenal was the best thing he ever did. I have to say he was right - and Arsene was wrong to let him go.
I will remain convinced to my dying day that it was a mistake to let him go at the start of 2003.
For my money, he was, and is, a far better defender than Pascal Cygan will ever be and I will always believe that when Arsene sacrificed him in order to persist with Cygan, it went a long way to costing us the title in 2003 in the end.
Over all I don't think that I need to tell any of you Gooners what to expect from Birmingham on Saturday. Just like everybody else, they will come to Highbury with a "game plan" which will consist, in other words, of them sticking nine or ten men behind the ball and trying to hold on for dear life for as long as it takes in the hope that they will nick a goal somewhere on the way.
Could you imagine what people would say if WE ever resorted to this kind of "game plan"? It doesn't bear thinking about. Nevertheless, if we are going to keep our title we have to start applying a little mind over matter when confronted with this oh so familiar scenario.
And, make no mistake; the sooner we get to work on this the better.