Even Alex Ferguson celebrated as though United had won a trophy, such was the victory’s importance.

But, as Ferdinand pointed out, the three points will be meaningless unless his side can now embark on a sustained winning run.

“We have been crying out for a good result to kick-start our season and now we have got it,” said the defender.

“Beating the team at the top of the league gives us a massive lift but the victory will mean nothing if we lose at Portsmouth.

“This has to be the start of a consistent string of results but we can’t afford to get too far ahead of ourselves because we are not back in the championship race just yet.

“The result does give us a lot of self-belief though. Arsenal have not gone 49 games unbeaten without being a quality side and we knew it was going to be tough.

“We were well prepared for it – now we have to maintain that form.”

Amid all the argument surrounding Ruud van Nistelrooy’s challenge on Ashley Cole, the performance of referee Mike Riley and the post-match incident that ended up with Ferguson having soup thrown at him by an Arsenal player, the magnificence of Ferdinand’s performance has largely been lost.

The England man, again named skipper in the absence of Roy Keane, was named man of the match for his outstanding display.

Only five weeks into his comeback from an eight-month ban, Ferdinand remained calm in the wave of fierce Gunners’ pressure, restricting Thierry Henry and the rest of Arsenal’s fearsome forward line to a single clear cut chance in the entire game.

While acknowledging Ferdinand’s outstanding contribution, among Wenger’s post-match complaints was the player’s first-half clash with Freddie Ljungberg which the Frenchman felt should have been accompanied by a red card.

It was one of a number of key decisions that went United’s way, although Ferdinand doesn’t see why his team should feel embarrassed by that.

“Sometimes you get the rub of the green with certain decisions and maybe we benefited from that,” he said.

“But that is the way the game goes. These things tend to even themselves out over the course of a season and overall we were worthy of the win.”

Ferdinand was particularly pleased for Van Nistelrooy, who banished the memory of his last-gasp penalty failure in the corresponding fixture last season by sending Jens Lehmann the wrong way from the spot to put the hosts in front.

The Dutchman’s celebrations smacked of a ghost being exorcised from his mind and Ferdinand admitted the previous failure had been tough for the prolific Dutchman to deal with.

“That penalty miss is replayed so often it even makes me squirm,” he said.

“It must be worse for Ruud, that’s why we are so pleased for him.”

Ferdinand and the rest of yesterday’s starting line-up will now get a rest as Ferguson turns to his second string for tomorrow’s Carling Cup encounter at Crewe.

But by the time he comes to finalise his plans for Saturday’s trip to Fratton Park, the United boss will be hoping to stick with the vast majority of his team as he tries to establish the consistency in selection he feels has been lacking so far this term.

And it is that game, not yesterday’s, which Ferguson believes should be viewed as a new start.

“We have to look at the Portsmouth game as the start of our season,” he said.

“We have achieved a key result and narrowed the gap on Arsenal, so we cannot let that slip on Saturday.

“But now the players know what they are capable of and that is important.

“Sometimes, even the best players need confidence, we all thrive on it, so I would expect them to take a great boost from this win.”