Van Nistelrooy hands glory to his team-mates

In-form striker's selfless performance at Old Trafford impresses Guy Hodgson

The story from the Manchester United dressing room is that Ruud van Nistelrooy is not the man you choose to sit next to when he does not score. Moody, sulky even, the Dutch striker judges himself on the number of times he finds the net, and when he fails the verdict is damning. Even a favourable result for the team lacks proper compensation.

In anyone else, this would be considered rampant selfishness, but strikers have a special licence to be the big "I am" and in this case the black feelings hardly put Van Nistelrooy at risk of becoming a manic depressive. Indeed, 52 goals in 70 appearances since he first donned a Manchester United shirt mean he rarely has to wallow in muddy self-pity while his team-mates celebrate.

Which made you wonder how he felt last night. Van Nistelrooy had fired blanks but his contribution was substantial to the point where it was arguable that his was the most important on an afternoon when United made a sudden intrusion into a championship race many had conceded to Arsenal in October. Two assists, a header against the bar, but no goals.

Given the importance of the occasion, you suspect the negative mood was kept in check. Van Nistelrooy says he wants to develop into a goal-maker as well as a scorer and he played the two killer balls that decided Arsenal's fate yesterday. It was a near-perfect, if not ethical, demonstration of the lone striker's role.

His first significant contribution came after 20 minutes and showed he is a master of the striker's dark arts. Martin Keown, Arsenal's best player on a day many of his team-mates failed to deliver, was menacing him from a range of two inches and Van Nistelrooy used his arm to control the ball and turn away from the defender. "It was a definite handball, there's no debate," said Arsène Wenger, the Arsenal manager, and television evidence supported him. But if Van Nistelrooy was lucky that the referee missed his sleight of hand, there was nothing fortunate about the pass he delivered. Paul Scholes had the the right flank at his mercy and his delivery for Juan Sebastian Veron was impeccable.

Van Nistelrooy's role in United's second goal was even more crucial. Leaving Pascal Cygan stranded on the wing, he quickly assessed Scholes' charge from midfield and weighted his pass so perfectly that his team-mate arrived at the ball needing only a touch to put himself beyond the Arsenal back line.

There was a profound contrast between Van Nistelrooy and the man put forward in opposition to the theory that he is the best striker in the Premiership. Thierry Henry began and finished the day just a goal behind the Dutchman this season with 15, but his was an afternoon where he operated on the fringes.

It might have been very different if the Frenchman had reacted differently to his principal chance after 11 minutes. Gary Neville was a split second too late stepping forward and Henry's exquisite cushion of Robert Pires' pass pushed him beyond the chasing United defenders.

One on one against his countryman, Fabien Barthez, his elegant, almost lazy-looking run seemed certain to end in a goal but his shot did not have the conviction you expected and the goalkeeper dived low to his left to tip the ball away. It was, in Wenger's opinion, the turning point. "Barthez reacted well," he said, before stressing the importance of the first goal in a contest between equals.

Henry retreated to the periphery, Van Nistelrooy advanced to the centre of events. The two men embodied the story of the game.