Sparks always seem to fly – both on and off the pitch – whenever Manchester United and Arsenal face off, with fabulous goals, statement performances and fiery altercations in the player tunnel.
Here’s a brief trip down memory lane of unforgettable clashes between the two Barclays Premier League heavyweights.
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Giggs slaloms through the Gunners
Manchester United icon Ryan Giggs has scored many great goals during his career, but perhaps none were better than THAT run against Arsenal in the replay of the 1999 FA Cup semifinal at Villa Park.
The teams traded goals in regulation time, with David Beckham’s effort cancelled out by Denis Bergkamp, sending the match to extra time. Cue Giggs, who picked off an errant Patrick Vieira pass inside his half and then proceeded to dribble around Arsenal’s defence like so many pylons before blasting a left-footed shot past David Seaman and just under the crossbar.
Arsenal clinches at Old Trafford
Arsenal famously clinched the title on the last day of the 1988-89 season with a win over rivals Liverpool at Anfield. Fourteen years later, it was Manchester United fans who witnessed first-hand the Gunners’ crowning as champions of England.
Four days after beating Chelsea in the FA Cup final, Arsenal travelled to Old Trafford on the penultimate game of the 2002 and completed the double with a 1-0 win over the Red Devils. Sylvain Wiltord’s goal in the 58th minute stood up as the winner for Arsenal, whose fans to this day on the terraces still sing “We won the league in Manchester.”
Keane vs. Vieira
Everyone talks about Pizza-gate when tensions boiled over between these two sides in October 2004.
But a far more compelling tête-à-tête was between Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira in the tunnel before the match at Highbury in February 2005. The two captains didn’t wait to get onto the field to get at each other, trading verbal barbs—and nearly blows—as they lined up to head out for kickoff.
Things grew so heated that referee Graham Poll had to step in and warn both players to save it for the pitch, where Keane would win the one-on-one battle against the Frenchman with a dominating performance as United went on to claim a 4-2 victory in a snarly affair.
8-2
A 6-1 humiliation on Feb. 25, 2001 at the hands of United was a result that lived in infamy for close to a decade for Arsenal fans – and then came this humbling early on in the 2011-12 campaign.
A Gunners side riddled with injury problems travelled to Old Trafford looking to just keep things respectable. But few saw this coming, as United, paced by Wayne Rooney’s hat trick, shredded Arsenal’s enfeebled defence.
This was so one-sided, and Arsenal was so helpless against a rampant United side, it was like watching a hapless drunk getting beaten with a bag of oranges.
