Sir Alex Ferguson called it "one of the great pleasures of managing this football club."

The source of Ferguson's excitement was the last six minutes against CSKA Moscow and United's enduring ability to fashion an unlikely escape from the tightest corners at the last possible moment with a big finish.

United's were at it again as a rare Paul Scholes header and Antonio Valencia's deflected shot clawed back CSKA's 3-1 lead in that frantic finale and stretched their unbeaten home record in the Champions League to 23 games.

Ferguson could just as easily have been talking about the luxury of being able to launch Wayne Rooney, and you could almost use the word literally for the way he went about his business on Tuesday, into action when things get rough.

Football's most famous new father may have been short on sleep just a day after the birth of his son Kai, but he woke a dozing Old Trafford from its slumbers and made sure Ferguson got the point that fulfilled his wish for early qualification for the Champions League group phase.

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Robbie Keane's boast that Tottenham were now the equal of Arsenal sounded like optimism gone mad even before they met at the Emirates. It had a ludicrous ring after Arsene Wenger's team delivered emphatic evidence of the gulf that still exists.

Keane had added time to consider his ill-judged elevation of Spurs' aspirations when he was removed early from an encounter that was 42 minutes of hard-fought north London derby combat and 48 minutes of one-sided Arsenal domination.

Nothing wrong with talking up your team, but Keane learned a harsh lesson that it is always best to talk big after first backing up your words with deeds.

Spurs failed to do that and the Emirates, unsurprisingly, battered Keane over the head with all the derision at its command when he was removed after 65 minutes.

The big surprise came as Spurs boss Harry Redknapp sat in the Arsenal media theatre and refused to believe the evidence of his own eyes, announcing: "There is no gap between the clubs in my opinion."

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Early next week, there will be a change to how you leave comments on this blog - we're upgrading our current registration system to a new and improved one. When you log in to the new system, you will be prompted to upgrade your existing account, and you should be able to do that with a minimum of fuss. More details on this can be found on the BBC Internet Blog.

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