Manchester United v Arsenal: 26 years of ill-feeling, grudges and pizza

Manchester United v Arsenal: The grudges and the pizza

For a decade they ruled the north and the south with teams that took no prisoners in their quest for Premier League dominance. When they collided neutrals were well advised to stand back and take in the show.

Battle of Old Trafford 1990

The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in 1914 led to decades of discord between two states that had previously been the best of frenemies. In football terms Brian McClair’s booting of the grounded Nigel Winterburn’s spine in the 59^th minute of this fiery league clash did much the same.

Martin Keown reminds Ruud Van Nistelrooy that he missed that penalty

Prior to McClair wading in – aided and abetted by the usually unflappable Denis Irwin – United and Arsenal had long eyed each other up with barely concealed contempt, each titans of their respective turfs. From here on in it would be open warfare.

Watching the 21-man brawl back now without context – a twenty second melee of pushing and throat-grabbing that resulted in the only instance in English football history of both clubs being docked points for player misconduct – it’s hard not to condemn the Scot for his actions.

Yet that would be overlooking an incident from Highbury two years earlier when Winterburn needlessly taunted the striker for missing a late penalty.

Oh Nigel, look what you went and started.

Fergie v Wenger

Running through the long-standing divide like a Berlin Wall built entirely of barb wire and barbed comments was a personal feud made all the more fascinating by each man’s contrasting personality.

Ferguson and Wenger were as different as chalk and camembert and as much as the former liked to portray himself as a cultured sort with a penchant for fine wine his Govan blood was always going to be boiled by the arrival of Le Professeur with his fancy accent and cerebral ways.

“He’s a novice. He should keep his opinions to Japanese football,” was an early jibe and the character smearing continued unabated until it reached a nadir in 2002: “He never comes for a drink with the opposing manager after matches. It’s a tradition here. It would be good for him to accept the tradition.”

Considering the Gunners had just triumphed at Old Trafford to secure their second Premier League title it could be argued Wenger had more pressing concerns: namely the celebration of that. It could also be argued the wine enthusiast’s comments smacked of sour grapes.

Wright v Schmeichel

If the verbal jousting from the managers were often entertaining sidebars events on the pitch took an unedifying turn at Old Trafford in November 1996 when Ian Wright accused the giant Dane of hurling racist abuse, a claim that led to a lengthy investigation from the Crown Prosecution Service after several lip-readers watching the incident on television reported it to the police.

The case was eventually dropped due to a lack of evidence but not before the corresponding fixture at Highbury brought further controversy as Wright ignored a clear whistle for offside and flung himself full-blooded and two-footed into Schmeichel, badly bruising the keeper’s ankle. With the referees attention elsewhere he was extremely fortunate to only receive a yellow.

Veteran official Graham Poll – who was not involved in the game in question – later deemed it one of the worst ‘tackles’ he had ever witnessed while the recriminations continued into the tunnel as the warring pair were separated by police and backroom staff.

Keown v Van Nistelrooy

One of the most infamous flare-ups in recent times is deserving of some revisionism.

The general consensus through the distillation of time has it that Martin Keown leapt all over the Dutchman like a gloating, demented werewolf because his last-minute penalty miss was justice served for the earlier ‘cheating’ – to use Wenger’s post-match parlance – that resulted in Patrick Vieira being sent off. Furthermore Arsenal were particularly fired up that day as they were defending an unbeaten streak that later saw them crowned as ‘Invincibles’.

It would be Ruud not to point out how the truth differs. While Van Nistelrooy certainly had previous for simulation on this occasion he was largely the innocent party, merely pointing out to the ref Vieira’s rash attempt to karate-kick his thigh. And it was actually Diego Forlan who tumbled under the merest of contact to cheaply buy the pen.

As for the staunch defence of their unbeaten honour the game took place late September, just six games into the season.

What is not in dispute is this – rarely have we ever witnessed a 0-0 containing so much drama and comedy combined.

Battle of the Buffet 2004

A little over a year later however there was a record-breaking run to protect, 49 games to be precise. There was also another highly contentious spot-kick, this time converted by Van the Man who showed admirable restraint not to mimic Nelson from the Simpsons into every Arsenal face. Rooney’s late tap-in concluded matters, on the pitch at least.

It is fair to say the visitors did not take their first taste of defeat for 16 months well, first refusing to swap shirts – leading to unconfirmed rumours they each had t-shirts beneath proclaiming ’50 not out’ – before Wenger confronted Van Nistelrooy for a raking challenge on Ashley Cole.

From there we enter the world of farce and hearsay. There is no question that food was thrown in the direction of Sir Alex Ferguson and there is little doubt it was pizza. It’s also reasonable to assume the thin-crusted missile found its target considering a change of clothing was required for the post-match interview. But who the offending party was remains shrouded in doubt despite history pointing its finger firmly at Cesc Fabregas.

The United boss was furious at Arsenal avoiding punishment saying ‘they got off scot-free’.

That’s not strictly true though is it Alex, as the pepperoni stain on your lapel testified.

Keane v Vieira

If Keown’s primal scream into Van Nistelrooy’s crestfallen face is the picture that tells a thousand words of Arsenal’s rivalry with Manchester United then the fierce feud between these two beasts of the jungle is the gripping narrative.

Several skirmishes had preceded this infamous tunnel bust-up in 2005 but, above all others, this one proved there was no grandstanding involved in their mutual antagonism: just pure hatred.

On hearing that the Arsenal skipper had pushed Gary Neville and warned him off roughing up Robert Pires the United man went nuclear resulting in a heated altercation all caught on camera.

“I’ll see you out there,” he growls, mad eyes blazing with intent. “Shooting your mouth off every week you.”

Whoever first suggested to Sky that they film the tunnel line-ups presumably got a pay rise that week.