The Joy of Six: Manchester Utd v Arsenal showdowns

From the Busby Babes' final flourish to Sylvain Wiltord's title-winning strike, we pick the greatest meetings of these adversaries
    • Jump to comments ()

1. Arsenal 1-2 Manchester Utd, FA Cup semi-final, Villa Park, April 14 1999

This was so much more than an FA Cup game; it was an Arsenal-Manchester United game. At a time when winning the FA Cup meant relatively little, this was about something more: glory, bragging rights and being the cock of the walk. If it transcended its immediate context, then it was shaped by the wider context: both sides were locked in the most magnificently unyielding title race (neither side had lost in any competition since Christmas), and shared an unspoken mutual respect that might have been mistaken for homoeroticism in some cultures. They also offered a perfect study in contrasts: United's irresistible force against Arsenal's immovable object.

The details of this astonishing game you will know, but it's often forgotten just how dominant Arsenal were in the build-up to Ryan Giggs's 109th-minute goal. United were down to 10 men, and effectively nine with Ronny Johnsen hobbling. They had not put two passes together throughout extra-time - and still they didn't, as Giggs set off on the astonishing slalom that pulled the rug from under Arsenal's feet, before famously revealing his own chest-rug. Perhaps his most remarkable feat was to temporarily silence Sky's Andy Gray, who as the goal went in could only repeat the phrase, "Words fail me". The rest of us would be talking about it for years.

2. Arsenal 3-2 Manchester Utd, FA Cup final, Wembley, May 12 1979

Don't be surprised if M Night Shyamalan decides to cinematise this, because it fits the template of his films perfectly: tedious guff redeemed by a dramatic late twist. After 85 minutes Arsenal, with Liam Brady oozing the sort of languid majesty he could do with in the RTE studio, were deservedly 2-0 up through Brian Talbot and Frank Stapleton (who, if you look carefully, actually smiles when he scores).

Gordon McQueen's reply seemed like an afterthought, but from there the similarities with Arsenal's match at Liverpool are considerable. A magnificent solo run from Sammy McIlroy made it 2-2, but - shades of Tuesday night at Anfield - as that goal was being digested the opponents broke immediately down the left. Brady whipped in a deep cross that just eluded the ill-judged flap of the United goalkeeper Gary Bailey, allowing Alan Sunderland, the blackest of cats from a United point of view, to volley in. On balance United could not complain about the result but, having loved so briefly, the sense of loss was all the more acute.

3. Arsenal 4-5 Manchester Utd, Division One, Highbury, February 1 1958

There is an inevitable tendency to romanticise a dead artist's final work, but there is nothing trite about hailing the Busby Babes' performance in their final match on English soil. For much of the season, going for a third consecutive title, they had not been at their best and trailed the leaders Wolves by some distance. But they brought their A-games to Highbury for an absolute classic.

Trademark scorchers from Duncan Edwards and Bobby Charlton put United 2-0 up, and Tommy Taylor made it three on the cusp of half-time at the end of a beautiful, sweeping move. Yet Arsenal roared back, scoring three goals in an astonishing three-minute spell through David Herd and two from Jim Bloomfield. The ebb and flow continued, with Dennis Viollet replying straight away - that made it four goals in under four minutes - and Taylor putting United 5-3 ahead before Derek Tapscott's goal made for a nervous denouement. At the end, players and fans embraced giddily, overcome by what they had just participated in. Tragically, we would never see its like again.

4. Manchester Utd 0-1 Arsenal, Premier League, Old Trafford, May 8 2002

To win the title is one thing. To win it on the ground of your fiercest competitors is another. But to take their title from them on their own patch, denying them a record fourth consecutive win, is almost as good as it gets. It's often forgotten just how tight this title race was: had United won this, the penultimate game of the season, Arsenal would have been only two points clear but with an inferior goal difference. Sir Alex Ferguson might have coined the phrase "squeaky-bum time" a year earlier.

Instead he dropped a stinker, replacing the admittedly shattered Ruud van Nistelrooy (36 goals that season) with Diego Forlan (0 goals). Arsenal resisted some undignified attempts to lump them off the park in the first half and it soon became clear that, while they would not be moved, United's minds were still in Leverkusen after a heartbreaking European defeat a week earlier. They were shot, and Sylvain Wiltord's 57th-minute goal gave Arsenal an entirely comfortable victory. It was their 12th in a row in the league, and not even the most rabid United fan could deny that they deserved to have a big, shiny trophy to keep them company on the journey home.

5. Arsenal 2-6 Manchester Utd, Rumbelows Cup, Highbury, November 28 1990

This was the night on which Ferguson finally located United's G-spot, when he swapped Sextonian football with sexy football to quite devastating effect. Arsenal were an outrageously good side, who would lose only once in winning the league and concede only 18 goals in 38 league games, but Ferguson dropped his captain Neil Webb, went with a 4-2-4 formation and watched United tear Arsenal asunder on the counter-attack.

Lee Sharpe, 19, grabbed the glory with a marvellously accomplished hat-trick - strangely, none of them came with his left foot - but the real facilitator was Danny Wallace. Asked to play centre-forward in what is probably the biggest tactical masterstroke of Ferguson's career, he was as elusive as an urchin pickpocket and gave Tony Adams and Steve Bould an almighty chasing. Wallace made four, scored one and - truthfully - played like Romario. For him, alas, it was a false dawn. For United and Ferguson, it was the start of a decade of the richest entertainment.

6. Manchester Utd 2-0 Arsenal, Division One, Old Trafford, January 24 1987

An Arsenal side come to Old Trafford top of the league and on a long unbeaten run, only to lose in a controversial, physical game that prompts a) them to go into freefall and b) some serious rancour between the two sides. It happened long before 2004's so-called Battle of the Buffet. All the mutual antipathy that has provided such illicit entertainment over the past 20 years has its genesis in this little-remembered fixture on a bilious afternoon in Manchester.

Both sides had new Scottish managers, in George Graham and Ferguson. But that was where the similarity ended. Arsenal were unbeaten in 22 games in all competitions; United were slowly clambering up the bottom half of the table. With Bryan Robson injured, Ferguson commissioned Norman Whiteside to give Arsenal a crash course at the school of hard knocks, and got an added bonus when David Rocastle, just 19, was suckered into getting sent off for a retaliatory kick. Perhaps he was just in a gargantuan funk because Arsenal had conceded the only goal of human perm Terry Gibson's 27-match United career.

Gordon Strachan got the other, but there was no doubt who the real match winner was. "Big Norman Whiteside kicked everybody up and down the pitch for 90 minutes and didn't even get booked!" chuckled Fergie years later. David O'Leary said Whiteside was "like a wild nutter throughout the match". The man himself, pleading Scholesesque lateness rather than malice, said the game was "a punch-up away from notoriety", though there would be plenty of time for that. In the short-term, Arsenal won none of their next eight league games. Just as in 2004-05, by the time they awoke from their Old Trafford nightmare, the title was long gone.

  • I Am The Secret Footballer Small Graphic


Today's best video

Today in pictures