It's always difficult to go to the Emirates Stadium, but our performance in our 3-1 victory over Arsenal there last Sunday was one of the best away performances you will see in the Premier League at a top ground.

Arsenal are doing well at the moment and are one of our biggest challengers this season along with Chelsea. The performance was just fantastic from start to finish and definitely our best of the season. Our energy, passing, counter-attacking play and incisiveness in attack were excellent. Every time we went forward we looked dangerous - it was cutting-edge stuff. We defended well against a team that plays very good attacking football and are capable of cutting through teams.

Wayne Rooney's goal to make it 2-0 was classic Manchester United - the speed and incisiveness of the counter-attack was absolutely brilliant. It was similar to the goal in the Champions League semi-final but at the opposite end. I play against our attackers every day in training and the way they move the ball, and run and pass at speed is really difficult to live with as a defender. What you saw last Sunday was counter-attacking at its absolute best.

We played really well at Arsenal last Sunday, but no one came into the training ground afterwards saying we are going to win the league. On the other hand, when we lost against Fulham recently, no one came in saying we weren't going to win the league.

At the moment, everyone is saying we are on top of the world and we have a great chance of success. But our players and manager have been around the block, so we never get too down or too high.

You have to understand when you play at a football club over a 60-game season that you're going to have good weeks and bad weeks. We played yesterday against Portsmouth and we have Aston Villa on Wednesday, and the only thing we can concentrate on is our next game.

In the past month or so we have seen the two ends of the spectrum with regard to the headlines about United. People are saying we were fantastic against Manchester City and Arsenal, which is correct, and that we have a good chance of winning the Carling Cup and the championship. Chelsea dropped two points last Tuesday and our odds are suddenly quite close to Chelsea's for winning the league. There will be twists and turns until the end of the season.

Even when we lose a game it doesn't take us away from our aims for the end of the season. It does give us confidence when we get a good win, but on the other hand we don't lose confidence when we have a defeat.

The manager said he would like Arsenal to batter Chelsea today because Chelsea are above us at the moment and our goal is to get to the top of the league so we can control our destiny. At this moment in time, Chelsea are in control of their destiny at the top, although we still have to play them at Old Trafford.

Nani's performances in the past few weeks against Hull City, Manchester City and Arsenal have been absolutely fantastic. He has incredible ability, and when he performs like he did against Arsenal he is unstoppable. Players like Nani, who have such high skill levels, rely on confidence. We hope the level of performance, commitment, determination and skill he has shown in the last few games can be maintained until the end of the season because he's a match winner for us.

I think Nani can be anything he wants to be. People expect so much from young players, but it sometimes takes time. It took time for Cristiano Ronaldo to settle in at United as well.

Another of our wingers, Antonio Valencia, has been fantastic this season, although he's had the benefit of playing in the English league previously with Wigan. He's powerful, strong and quick. He can beat a man, he gets crosses in and he has a fantastic physique. When we have all our players fit we are a very strong squad that can attack in different directions with different players.

Valencia wasn't known for scoring goals at Wigan, but he has bagged a few for us this year. At United you will always get great opportunities to score if you play in forward positions because we attack a lot. But he is also got himself into those attacking areas and finished well - he has a great shot on him.

Spending freeze

The Premier League's quietest January transfer window for the past seven years has just ended. I think a lot of managers have realised what our manager has known for many years - that doing business in January is very difficult.

Clubs set up for the season in the summer and managers don't plan their squads around the January window. If clubs get injuries or something happens then it might be necessary to buy one or two players, but I think they have recognised that business in the January window is not necessarily fruitful.

This time in particular there were no outstanding transfer deals in the Premier League. A few players moved on loan or small deals, but there was no major business.

I suppose it can be seen as quite restrictive for football clubs as they can't bring in players whenever they want, but it would be best to ask managers and chairmen whether that is a bad thing because as players we don't really think about it. Some clubs do find it restrictive, but other clubs would defend it because they don't want their players unsettled during the season.

There was some talk of the window being detrimental to players outside of the window desperate to leave clubs, but players can still go on loan, and there are only four or five months between windows opening so it's not the end of the world if a player has to wait.

I don't think it particularly generates excitement for the fans in the lead up to it or during it either. The football is the most important thing.

Over to you

Who is your favourite right-back in the world football? Dmitry, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.

Inter Milan's Maicon is my favourite right-back at the moment. I like the way he gets forward; he's powerful, quick and he gets good crosses in. He's what you would class as a modern full-back.Growing up as a United fan, I watched Dennis Irwin a lot and he was fantastic. Going back to watching the World Cup in my early years, I remember Josimar from Brazil, and then later there was Cafu. Those players redesigned how to play right back because they were huge attacking outlets for their teams.

Send you questions to Gary Neville to sunday@timesofmalta.com