With hardly any news coming up today, we at 11Reds decided to start setting up the stage to the Arsenal game on Saturday. There is a considerable amount of excitement in the air as this is the first ‘big’ game of the as-yet fledgling season. Both Arsenal and Manchester United warmed up to the game with massive wins over the weekend. Arsenal predictably booked their passage to the Champions League main draw by humbling Celtic 5-1 on aggregate in the mid-week round of games, albeit an Eduardo dive soured the result for them a little bit. Today, we look back at some of the best Arsenal games over the last few years. Indulge yourself by reminiscing over some of our finest performances against the Gunners.
1. Arsenal 1-3 Manchester United (2009, UEFA Champions League)
After gaining a slender one goal lead in the first leg thanks to a rare John O’Shea goal, United made the trip to the Emirates Stadiun ruing a bunch of missed opportunites from the home leg. Would our profligacy in front of goal hamper our chances of making it to our second Champions League final in a row? All jitters were dispelled early on by a Park goal followed by a blistering Ronaldo free-kick. Another goal from Ronaldo following a devastating counter from United effectively killed off the tie. However, Darren Fletcher’s cruel sending off late on in the game left a bitter taste in the mouth with his absence in the CL final proving to be our undoing eventually.
2. Arsenal 2-4 Manchester United (Premier League, 2005)
Arsenal had taken the lead through a Patrick Vieira header, only to see Ryan Giggs restore parity with a deflected shot. Dennis Bergkamp then put Arsenal in front again amidst smug Arsenal fans who took it for granted that victory was going to be theirs. However a quickfire double from Cristiano Ronaldo stunned the Gunners who could never recover from the shock. A brilliant late finish by John O’Shea followed by one of the funniest celebrations ever seen put the icing on the cake for us.
3. Manchester United 6-1 Arsenal (Premier League, 2001)
An early Dwight Yorke goal gave us the lead on this memorable day in Manchester United’s history. Thierry Henry equalised for the Londoners only to see a blitz of goals from us in reply. Two more goals from Dwight Yorke saw him complete a hat-trick inside 21 minutes. Furthermore, goals from Roy Keane, Solskjaer and Sheringham gave us our biggest victory against the Gunners.
4. Manchester United 2-0 Arsenal (Premier League, 2004)
The Gunners were riding high. 49 straight games without being beaten had seen them being labelled ‘invincible’. Van Nistelrooy’s manhandling at the hands of those rowdy Goon bastards was still fresh in most people’s memory. What followed was something nobody expected. Sol Campbell brought down Wayne Rooney as Mike Riley pointed to the spot. Van Nistelrooy buried his personal demons by slotting the resulting penalty home. Wayne Rooney added a late goal to end the Gunners’ unbeaten streak. The high and mighty Londoners could manage just the one shot on target. Inspite of what the Arsenal fans would have us believe, this was a deserved win for us. We have not looked back ever since while Arsenal have since gone 4 years without a trophy.
Let’s hope for some of the same level of performance that we displayed in these four games on Saturday.
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Yup, a very nice collection of us vs. The Gonners! My personal favorite is the one where we kicked their arse in the Arsenal 2-4 Manchester United (Premier League, 2005) game. I had a sworn Goonie colleague then and I remember walking up to him and gave him just a smile; no word was needed.
I think that said it all.
Let’s hope we can feel the same after this weekend’s showdown. And then we could add into this list.