One year on from the Keown/Van Nistelrooy incident, Arsenal went back to Old Trafford as champions of England and looking to continue the now famous record breaking unbeaten run. The ‘Invincibles’ ’hadn’t tasted defeat in 49 previous league games but Sir Alex and United were certainly not

Regardless of fans’ feelings towards rival clubs, there’s always the underlying belief that the players on the pitch don’t share our anger/resentment/hatred. All the feelings of tribalism that drive us on to fanatically support the team are, ironically, an alien concept to those we are actually supporting. In recent years we’ve had to put up with certain players *cough* Alex Song *cough, cough* standing in the tunnel sharing a laugh and joke with the opposition when in fact we’d rather they approach the match like they are going into battle and save whatever love they share for full time. “Why are you hugging him? I’m sat here frothing at the mouth wanting to tear off his head. Don’t shake his hand! HE IS NOT OUR FRIEND!!”

That said, Arsenal and Manchester United are two teams for whom there has very rarely been any love lost between. The two have (had?) shared an outright hated toward one another for many, many years and certainly haven’t afraid to show it. This weekend, The Arsenal are back at Old Trafford. A scene of many a talking point down the years. Ahead of the game, Arse From the Past looks back on just some (not all. Obviously) of these incidents that have occurred when The Arsenal have made the journey up the M6 in the past…

Foot-brawl

One the most enduring images of Arsenal’s unbeaten campaign back in 2003/04 came at the conclusion of the early season fixture at Old Trafford. A tedious goalless draw when neither side was worthy of ‘nil’  looked to be sleepwalking toward an uneventful conclusion. That was until the 80th minute when Ruud van Nistelrooy, arguably the most despised opposition player by gooners in recent history, attempted to win a header by using Patrick Vieira like a stepladder. As our captain was on the ground, frustration got the better of him and he flicked out a kick in the Dutchaman’s general direction. Silly perhaps, but not dangerous. Van Nistelrooy was a good few yards away so there was never a chance he was likely to be caught by any of Paddy’s flailing limbs. That didn’t stop the United striker from overreacting in a manner that would embarrass a small child as he made sure the ref was well aware of what happened. Steve Bennett had no hesitation in issuing a second yellow toVieira and all of a sudden we were down to ten men. As if things couldn’t get any worse, United were awarded a soft penalty in the dying minutes and it would be down to van Nistelrooy to break gooner hearts. Sweet poetic justice saw his spot kick crash off the underside of the crossbar and away to safety. What followed was either one of the most disgraceful or one of the most brilliant moments in football (depending on your persuasion, of course) as Martin Keown channelled every single fan on planet Arsenal.  His reaction produced an image that adorned my laptop as the desktop background for many weeks that followed.

A powder keg moment, and with the final whistle coming almost immediately after, Keown’s transformation from mild-mannered (ahem!) centre back into blood-thirsty monster was complete as he leaped into the air in celebration and “accidently” struck van Nistelrooy  on the way down. This prompted Ray Parlour, Lauren, Ashley Cole and even sweet, innocent Kolo Toure to converge on the Dutch striker and shove him from pillar to post like a rag doll. This prompted the now famous “Ruud van sheeet himself (lalalala)” ditty still sung by gooners whenever the two sides meet.

As I say, depending on your viewpoint this was either a terrible act of bullying or a fantastic show of solidarity for a fallen comrade. To see the team defend one another like that, particularly at Old Trafford showed they had ‘bottle’ as well as ability and many attribute this as one of the key factors in that season’s title success.  Arsenal were portrayed in a way that would make a serial killer blush. Arsene Wenger’s team had dragged football’s otherwise angelic name through the mud, were labelled a ‘disgrace’ by anyone with a passing interest  in the sport and were probably the cause of gang violence and the global financial crisis which was still five years away. The fallout saw fines and bans handed out like sweets at Halloween and created a siege mentality at the club which propelled them towards title success.

Curiously, it wasn’t the first incident of this kind. This weekend’s match is almost exactly 22 years on from a previous ‘battle’  at Old Trafford. Our own Nigel Winterburn and United’s Brian McClair had a long running feud stemming from the former taunting the latter over a missed penalty in a prior encounter at Highbury. In this October 1990 match, Our Nige went flying in with a somewhat robust tackle on McClair that the United man didn’t take too kindly to prompting the Scot  to almost kick our floored left back all way back to North London! This sparked a mass brawl involving 21 players. Pushes, shoves, punches, kicks and, remarkably, not a single bit of playacting. The late, great David Rocastle described it best:

“It was our team-mate, our little blood brother, in trouble. They were kicking Nigel like a nightclub brawl. That’s what got us upset. If it was just a bad tackle, you wouldn’t go in like that, no chance. But when I saw them kicking Nigel I ran over thinking, ‘You can’t have this’! We went in there and we stuck up for each other. At Arsenal we never, ever started any brawls – we just finished them.”

The fallout saw both sides docked points but that didn’t stop The Arsenal, as they did 14 years later, marching on toward title triumph. Perhaps that’s what we need this year. I think I’d quite enjoy seeing Big Per smacking Wayne Rooney in the chops.

Taking the Pizza

One year on from the Keown/Van Nistelrooy incident, Arsenal went back to Old Trafford as champions of England and looking to continue the now famous record breaking unbeaten run. The ‘Invincibles’ ’hadn’t tasted defeat in 49 previous league games but Sir Alex and United were certainly not prepared to allow us to make it a landmark 50 on their turf. A controversial match from start to finish saw all the big calls go the way of the home side. Firstly, Rio Ferdinand somehow escaped any punishment for hauling down Freddie Ljungberg when the Swede was in on goal. There was then the brutal and sustained assault by the Neville sisters on arguably Arsenal’s player of the season up until that point, Jose Antonio Reyes. Many would argue that this game was the beginning of the end for the Spaniard as he never truly recovered from this mauling. But again, no censure was forthcoming from referee on the day, Mike Riley. The official further endeared himself to Arsenal fans when he inexplicably awarded a penalty after a blatant dive by Wayne Rooney. Van Nistelrooy scored, Rooney added a second, the run had reached an abrupt end and the season started to crumble as Chelsea took the initiative.

If you will allow me to be a tad self-indulgent, from a personal point of view, with the exception of the 1995 CWC final, this was hands down the most painful defeat of my entire Arsenal supporting life. Ok, we all knew the run was going to come to an end eventually but for it happen like that, In those circumstances, To THEM was just far, far too painful.

It’s safe to say the players felt the same. It was widely reported that confrontations between players and management took place in th
e tunnel post match culminating in the Knight of the Realm and one of English football’s most decorated managers ending up with pizza in his face. Ashley Cole described the incident in his autobiography:

‘This slice of pizza came flying over my head and hit Fergie straight in the mush.

‘The slap echoed down the tunnel and everything stopped – the fighting, the yelling, everything. All eyes turned and all mouths gawped to see this pizza slip off that famous puce face and roll down his nice black suit.

‘I thought Ferguson was going to explode but then he stormed off into the dressing room cursing and grunting, brushing the crumbs and stains off his collar.

‘We all went back into the dressing room and fell about laughing.’

Despite Cashley’s (and admittedly my own) chuckles, the incident made for an unedifying and unpleasant spectacle. The rivalry had reached levels of farce and slapstick by this point. After years of bitter insults, violence and cheating, Arsenal’s response to United unfairly bringing an end to the great unbeaten run was to throw food. A single slice of pizza had exposed this great war between two gladiators as something more akin to a playground squabble between children. The two biggest clubs in the country at the time were not behaving in a manner that was befitting of their lofty statuses. The hatred had now seemingly transcended football and the long term impact saw something of a dilution to the rivalry. It’s almost as though, subconsciously, pizzagate served as a wakeup call, laying bare, for all to see, how ridiculous things had become. Perhaps the emergence of Chelsea played its part but it’s not unfair to say bitter feelings haven’t as intense between the two clubs since that season.

Gold Trafford

At the height of the rivalry, the two clubs were regularly neck and neck in the title race. If we plot the “conflict years”  as beginning when Wenger arrived in England back in 1996 and ending with the FA Cup final penalty shootout in Cardiff at the conclusion of the abovementioned 04/05 campaign, Ferguson’s five league triumphs to Wenger’s three of course indicates that the Scot was more successful during this period. However, Wenger’s first two titles and the manner in which they were achieved, I’m sure, will always rankle with him. Having immediately gotten off on the wrong foot – Fergie describing Le Boss as a “novice” within a season of his (Wenger’s) arrival at Highbury – the United manager clearly didn’t take too kindly to the young French upstart challenging his position as top dog in England. Having just swept away Kevin Keegan, a far greater threat had emerged. One that would change the landscape of English football forever, During the 1997/98 campaign Ferguson saw his side surrender a 12 point lead to the rampant Gunners. The key moment in their collapse coming in a famous 1-0 defeat in their own backyard courtesy of a Marc Overmas goal.

More than simply a match winner and perhaps more than even a potential title winner, the goal was symbolic in the sense that it helped catapult Arsenal above United to the summit of English football. Winning at Old Trafford wasn’t exactly something Arsenal had made a habit of in the preceding years (nor since to be honest) so to do in a situation of such importance just served to rubber stamp how much of an impact the ‘novice’ had made.

The prevailing belief is that Overmars’ goal ‘won the league’ for Arsenal, when in actual fact, it only narrowed the gap between the sides to six points. It certainly helped to build momentum for the final push but there were still a number of games left in the season for us to balls things up at that stage.

In contrast, when the team travelled up to Old Trafford on May 8th 2002 for their penultimate league game of the season, the five point lead they held over Manchester United meant a draw would be enough to seal the Championship. However, this Arsenal team weren’t in the habit of dropping points having won their previous eleven league matches in a row (as well as beating Chelsea in the FA Cup final the previous Saturday…) and made the most emphatic of statements as they dethroned the defending Champions in their own home thanks to Sylvain Wiltord’s second half goal in a 1-0 win – a more than unequivocal retort to a freak 6-1 defeat the previous season.

31 years earlier, Arsenal sealed the title with a win at White Hart Lane. 18 years after that, it was won at Anfield in the most dramatic fashion. This match in 2002 completed a unique and unprecedented hat trick. Any sort of defeat for United at Old Trafford tended to raise an eyebrow so to see them lose and surrender their Premier League crown in the one swift movement was simply astonishing. Something very special had been achieved and, simply for its significance, will remain one of the greatest games in the entire history of Arsenal football club.

Top of the Rock

The outpouring of emotion than when the life of David ‘Rocky’ Rocastle was tragically cut short by cancer in 2001 is something that will stick with Arsenal forever. Widely regarded as one of the most talented players the club has ever seen during his time at Highbury, his loss had a lasting effect on a generation of gooners who were fortunate enough to see him play. A fleet-footed midfielder, Rocky is revered for his amazing dribbling in an era when very few players were capable of such trickery. Having joined Arsenal as a schoolboy, Rocastle spent the best part of a decade at the club and was to key to George Graham’s initial successes. Curiously, Rocastle might also indirectly be responsible for the Genesis of all the hostility between Manchester United and Arsenal. The Guardian’s Amy Lawrence wrote the following back in 2009:

“It all began way back in 1987, coincidentally Sir Alex’s first appointment with Arsenal since he arrived at Old Trafford from Aberdeen. “I’ll never forget our first exchange, when United beat us at Old Trafford in 1987,” recalls George Graham, Arsenal’s manager at the time. “David O’Leary was getting kicked all over the place by Norman Whiteside, David Rocastle was provoked so much that he got sent off and there was a big row coming off the pitch. Alex Ferguson and his then assistant Archie Knox were right in our faces and I thought: ‘Jesus Christ! That’ll be the first and last time they intimidate us. We’re not going to be bullied any more’.”

The same piece also carries the abovementioned Rocastle quote about the 1990 brawl which suggests his resentment towards United, again, went way beyond football. With that in mind, you can imagine the satisfaction he must have felt when during Arsenal’s next visit a year after the punch up, he produced a moment of pure genius to score of his best goals in Arsenal colours.

RIP ROCKY

Ry, oh Ry

There has been quite the stellar cast of characters involved in this long running feud. From Nigel Winterburn, Brian McClair, Tony Adams, David Rocastle, Ian Wright, Peter Schmeichel, Martin Keown, Roy Keane, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Patrick Vieira, Cesc Fabregas, Cristiano Ronaldo… but the is one man been there longer than most. One man who has near enough seen it all when it comes to United v Arsenal. A certain Ryan Giggs. To that end, it would be remiss of me to ignore his greatest contribution to the rivalry, even if it still leaves a bad taste in the mouths of some fans. It came in a certain FA Cup tie. The game was deadlocked. The sides couldn’t be separated. Then, all of a sudden, the Welsh Wizard gets the ball at his feet. He starts running. Defenders are diving in left and right but none can stop him. He soon finds himself up against David Seaman…

Then this happens…

What? You didn’
t think I was talking about something else, did you? As hilarious as this moment was, it doesn’t, on the face of it, have the same impact as many of the other incidents on this list. From an Arsenal point of view, perhaps it didn’t. Edu and Wiltord went on to secure a rather enjoyable and at the time, routine 2-0 win to put us on our way to successfully defending the trophy. From a Manchester United point of view, it’s safe to say their manager didn’t take the defeat well. This led to a dressing room altercation with a certain David Beckham which left the then England captain with a visible facial cut courtesy of a flying boot. Beckham left the club that summer. The impact of a Giggs’ miss and subsequent defeat against Arsenal proving somewhat seismic.

Chants Encounter

In recent years, I think it’s safe to say we’ve fallen away from United somewhat. Since 2005, we’ve failed to finish above them in the table even once. To make matters worse, the point gap between the two clubs has been double figures in all bar one of these league campaigns. This has led to a ‘cooling’ between the two bosses with two old foes speaking of each other in more complimentary terms. You don’t need me to tell you that the main factor that has contributed to the supposedly more amicable relations has been Arsenal’s decline. The ‘battles’ seem to be a thing of the past due the fact the clubs now find themselves at completely different levels. The intensity is all but gone. Laurent Koscielny is hardly going to get all up in Nani’s grill over a missed penalty, while the likes of Santi Cazorla and Javier Hernandez don’t exactly strike me as the brawling types.

The only vitriol is left to each set of fans who attempt to stoke the flames through derogatory songs and chants about one another. The United fans, classy bunch they are, more often than not, choose to sing THAT song about Arsene Wenger. For years this was ignored until an incident at the end of a particularly frustrating 2-1 defeat in 2009. Robin van Persie (spit) thought he had salvaged a valuable point in the dying embers of stoppage time only to be denied by the assistant referee’s flag as William Gallas (double spit) had strayed into an offside position during the build up. A frustrated Arsene kicked a water bottle on the touchline; a crime deemed worthy of a sending off by referee Mike Dean. As Wenger made his way to the stand, it became apparent there was nowhere for him to go so all of a sudden we had the image of our manager standing on a wall, arms outstretched with a bunch of gurning Mancs taunting behind him and thousands more very loudly chanting “SIT DOWN, YOU PAEDOPHILE”.

On the chanting itself, it’s a shame that in the view of some people, this sort of thing is fine to pass off as ‘banter’. At the risk of sounding ‘preachy’ (which is one thing I most certainly am not), certain things ought to be off limits when it comes to football chants. Racism and mocking the dead rightly get a lot of coverage in the press and on the whole people are working to stamp this out. However, accusing someone of having sex with children doesn’t seem to receive the same condemnation. To his credit, Sir Alex has openly come out and asked his fans to refrain in the past but I’d be shocked if we don’t hear it again at some point during Saturday’s game. Mind you, I’m not sure how much of a stance Arsenal fans will be able to take once the van Persie/rape inevitably songs start up. Perhaps we are hypocrites for only really feeling strongly about the chants because it’s OUR manager.

Anyway, I digress. In the above example, despite everything & given the scope for humiliation, I believe many gooners felt a sense of pride given the defiant messiah-like pose. Arsene Wenger had quite literally taken the moral high ground in the face of sustained abuse.

If there is a point to be made by this post it’s the fact that down the years, Arsenal have quite often refused to be overwhelmed, ground down or bullied when visiting Old Trafford. Wins were that much sweeter because they were well earned and even in defeat we still go down fighting. Sometimes literally. Arsene’s pose epitomised that and this is the exact reason why last year’s match was so disappointing and so unlike what we had rightly come to expect from anybody wearing the famous cannon on their chest. The team that got spanked 8-2 were Arsenal in name alone and one would not be wrong to expect that this time around, we will at least see some character. Ultimately, the hope is that the overwhelming superiority they displayed against us on that horrible August afternoon wasn’t the closing chapter on what has been one of football’s greatest grudge matches.

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