Morning all.
It’s hard not to think about Man Utd and Arsenal games these days without a sense of wistfulness. A rivalry that was so intense has dwindled considerably for lots of reasons but it was an era that won’t ever be forgotten by those of us who endured and enjoyed it in equal measure.
It was the kind of thing that left indelible marks on you as a fan, and in a weird way too. For all the amazing games we played against them – and that includes winning the title at Old Trafford, beating them in the cup final, van Nistelrooy’s miss, Keown’s star-jump and more – the one match that sticks with me is in the 1998-99 season. We played them five times in all. Once in the Charity Shield, twice in the league, and twice in the cup, culminating in that semi-final replay at Villa Park.
But a game that I recall with real clarity was the away trip to Old Trafford when Nicolas Anelka scored just after half-time and Andy Cole equalised a few minutes later. I think they missed a penalty in the first half and I distinctly remember Steve Bould being absolutely awesome that night. I remember the kit we wore, young Stephen Hughes in midfield, Vieira and Keane being at each others throats and getting booked, they had chances to win it – but it’s not really the details of the game that are fresh in my mind, most of all I remember how I felt.
It was a cocktail of excitement, terror, stomach churning nerves, intense hatred of everything in a red shirt, a sensation that we’d have to do something brilliant to beat them, but also that they’d have to do something brilliant to beat us. It was, at times, physically uncomfortable. Sitting, standing, pacing around the room watching it. I don’t really know how to describe it properly other than despite all the various sensations it felt right, like two natural enemies doing what they should do.
That season, as we know, ended rather better for them than it did for us, and it took us a little while to recover it from it properly. Although we were still their closest rival, we didn’t challenge them same way finishing 18 points behind in 2000 and 10 points in 2001 before we found our double-winning groove in 2002. We know what happened in 2003, when they overtook us at the death and there was that whole Invincible thing people keep going on about for some reason in 2004, and it was after the 2005 FA Cup final when it began to slow down.
Chelsea were on the scene, the spite was diluted for obvious reasons, and it’s never been the same since. But then I’m not sure we’ll ever see anything quite like it again. The two best teams in England, the two best managers in England, a relatively new broadcaster who knew this was just what they needed to catapult their subscriptions into a different dimension, and it was borne out of genuine sporting competitiveness and dislike.
Sometimes it’s necessary for a good team to have something that makes it great. It can be a brilliant leader, a collective desire to win things, a manager or an owner who is hugely ambitious, but often it’s finding a rival that inspires and motivates you to win simply because you want them to lose. While United were already a powerhouse, there’s no doubt in my mind that the upstart that was Arsene Wenger, swanning in from Japan with his ideas and his opinions that were so objectionable to Ferguson, absolutely needed Manchester United.
He had a big job to do. A team that had finished 12th and 5th in the seasons before he arrived became a perennial title contender. Year after year, season after season, and the bottom line is that the desire to win things and be successful should be the primary setting for any club, manager or group of players. But when you know that winning something will come at the expense of a club you hate – and let’s not, in the mists of time, try and play this down because it was hate on both sides – that most certainly gives you a little bit extra.
It’s true at every level of the game. Every player involved in an organised league, be it Saturday or Sunday or midweek Astro, probably has one team that they clash with more than any other. Whether it’s based on history, some kind of incident or something else entirely, you know what it’s like to want to win that game more than any other. And when that rivalry takes place at the highest level and one game might well be the difference between winning the title and not, it’s no wonder that intensity becomes something people remember long after it has burned out.
We can pretend all we want that the presence of van Persie adds some kind of edge to tomorrow’s fixture but it’s pantomime stuff compared to what we had before. It was of its time but dammit it was amazing. Just thinking about it now, so many years later, brings back so many of those feelings. Beating them was amazing, losing to them beyond gutting.
Will we ever see anything like it again? I doubt it. The Premier League is no longer a two horse race (it’s almost a one horse race this season, but you know what I mean), and the bristling spite between the two managers is hard to replicate – even if Wenger and Mourinho clearly don’t get along.
I’ll try and pretend a bit tomorrow just to add a little spice to what will be a big game for us, but it’s just not quite the same.
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Now, time for this week’s Arsecast and I’m joined by @JonSpurling1 to talk about his book red letter days (available for 30% off directly from the publisher’s website), as well as journalist @MiguelDelaney to look ahead to the game against United, the injuries that both teams face, and their respective struggles this season. As well as that we’ve got goodies to give away from our friends at Savile Rogue so tune in for details on that.
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Right, that’s that. We’ll have news from the press conference and all the stories throughout the day on Arseblog News.
ps- forgot to mention the winner of the Art of Football t-shirt on the podcast itself, but the RNG picked Lucjan Kaliniecki. Well done, I’ll be in touch to get your details and the prize sent out.
