Manchester United take on Chelsea this weekend, in a match the blues will certainly be eager to win after losing out to us in the Premiership and European Cup final last season.
Whilst during the past four years Chelsea have posed the biggest threat to us, between 1997 and 2003, the league title was passed back and forth between Old Trafford and Highbury. The hatred was pretty fierce, as it was not just the fans, but the players seemingly openly disliking their opponents.
Sir Alex Ferguson has said today that whilst Chelsea give us a tougher time than Arsenal do, the Gunner’s rivalry meant a lot more.
Since Fergie took over at United in 1986, Arsenal have more league wins against us than any other side, beating us an impressive 13 times, with Wenger getting 8 Premiership victories over us.
This video looks at the rivalry in more detail, going back to that brawl in 1990.
In those 10 years since Wenger took over, the matches have always been about the two most attractive English sides battling it out, which meant you could never predict the winner.
From a United perspective, our most important wins in that time have been the FA Cup semi-final replay in 1999, ending their unbeaten run in 2005 before going on to beat them 4-2 at Highbury in the same season, as well as last season’s 2-1 victory at Old Trafford which ended their season and took us one step closer to winning the title.
“Of course we’ve got Chelsea at the moment, that’s without question,” said Ferguson. “But the history of Arsenal versus Manchester means that you’re not just talking about winning a football match, you’re talking about your own history against the other team’s history. There’s a dominance attached to that. You want to be the dominant team and they want to be the dominant team – and we’ve had some volatile matches because of that. But you can’t beat the history and the quality that both teams believe in and the way they want to play has never changed.”
Following last season’s victory at Old Trafford, Ferguson and Wenger seemed to get on surprisingly well, with our manager walking off the field with his arm around the Frenchman. It seems both of them are far more subdued now they’re getting on a bit.
Wenger has agreed with Fergie though, claiming United is ‘the big game’ of the season for Arsenal.
“It is usually the decider of the season – big games that tell you a lot about your team,” he said. “Will they be capable of winning the big matches? You go into the season with the feeling that you must win the big games and the big game usually is Manchester United.”
In terms of points, beating Chelsea is more important than beating Arsenal, as it will be the blues who push us hardest for the title. However, for me, I still enjoy a result against Arsenal far more than I do against the rent boys. Maybe it was the time of the season, but I certainly had a bigger smile on my face walking away from Old Trafford after our 2-1 over Arsenal than I did after our 2-0 over Chelsea.
Maybe after 10 years of battling it out with Chelsea, it will feel differently, but for now, I enjoy getting one over on Arsenal more than I do Chelsea.
The league chase aside, who do you prefer to see us beat?
Thats Sir Alex playing down the opponent with mind games..while i don’t disagree about Arsenal being historically bigger rivals than Chelsea i think if the context is history then there is Liverpool and even City that hold more significance, that he singled out Arsenal is merely incidental.
Hasan – I think it goes without saying that Liverpool and City are bigger games, because they’re proper rivalries, whereas the Chelsea and Arsenal rivalries have always been about titles. Since Fergie first won the league, these are the only teams who have been consistent in fighting it out with us for the Premiership, so I think it’s pretty fair to compare those rivalries without mentioned the dippers or bitters.
At present, if we had to choose between rent boys and le arses, I would choose to beat Chelski every time…. I think Arseanl do have some class left in them to realise beating United is not the most important thing in the world… and of course we all love to see mrs. chelsea cry…
its arsenal over chelsea for me anyday . maybe its because i started watching football around 2001/02 when arsenal were our only rivals and had to endure the taunts of their fans when they went unbeaten through the season . it could also be down to the fact that in a pure footballing sense , arsenal is the only team in the league that can claim to play as good/better football than us and i respect them for that .
Man Utd is a huge game for us no doubt, as is Liverpool. Beating either of those two is always feels great and losing them is real bad.
It wasn’t that long ago that Chelsea went through a period of maybe ten seasons without beating us and have only evened it up in the last few years.
Liverpool, Arsenal and Utd have histories of huge games together that go back 50 years at least, cup finals, league titles won and lost…… Chelsea have only been a major player in recent years
Havng said that surely the biggest rivalry is Utd Liverpool. Although I feel a lot of city rivalry between Arsenal and Utd.
Chelsea or Arsenal i don’t care…beating any of them makes me happy cos they’re all title contenders
That video doesn’t show it, but at the very end after Ruud smacked his penalty off the bar and had the four fucking morons surrounding him and trying to bully him, but all of them being to big of pussies to actually do anything more than just scream like a bunch of deranged idiots, the ONLY united player, and I mean the ONLY united player who did anything to come to their teammates aid was one 18 year old pretty boy named Christiano Ronaldo. I swear Keane turned around and ran away to get on playing, but Ronaldo actually came up next to Ruud and started pushing the arsenal players away from Ruud. Ironic, considering how their relationship went on from there…But I remember being so proud of him for actually standing up for his teammate.
Drew Vader, I think you are blind. Van horse face is the most play acting guy that i ever seen. For your information, Van horse commented Ronaldo couldn’t even cross a ball to him. Could you see how scare Van horse was where he was surrrounded? haha
Kingster – The Neville brothers gave Reyes nightmares.
I think it’s fairly normal to be worried when you have five baboons jumping on and pushing you.
Umm hey fuckhead, I said it doesnt show it in the video….
And what the fuck are you talking about “play acting”????? That dirty diving piece of shit you called a captain was lying on the ground and threw a pussy karate kick at another professionals knees. Luckily, the prick missed. But what did Ruud do that was play acting?? Did he fall to the ground and scream and roll around?? No, he looked at the ref as if to say, “did you just see what this fucking idiot just did?” Which, he did see it, as did everyone else. So you my friend, are the one who’s blind.
Liverpool and Citeh Goddamnit…
We’d become so used to beating the two of them…the double shitty did over us last year and last weekends fiasco have been downright debilitating…
Of course, for Liverfool and Citeh, beating United is like winning the European Cup…did you see Rafagaffa jumping up and down?
Arsenal fans are probably the biggest bunch of idiots ever to grace the footballing world, so theres a lot of pleasure in beating them and just shutting them up. But as of now, I’d like to beat Chelsea more than the Ar*e.
@Kunal: I don’t see this class you’re talking about, cus i seem to remember the sickening sight of the players of Le Arse dancing at the center line and their fans jumping up and down like they’ve won the CL or something, to them beating United probably means a lot to the bitter ones.
true…. I hate their new generation though…. Especially Gallas and tht cry baby fabregas… but thing with le arse is.. it is like kicking thm when thy r down.. thy are still not up to the standards they were some years ago… whereas Chelski acts like thy have been winning CL and PL for years… we still need to deliver that final knock out punch to thm..
I have a lot of respect for Arsenal, the way they maneuver without spending too much money, their talent at scouting and as much as I dislike him I have a lot of respect for Wenger, whom I consider a very intelligent man.
Chelsea, credit to them, had some good 90’s but they’ve only become title contenders thanks to Abramovich’s money, the transformation into a brand has been disgusting, even more so when you consider that Peter Kenyon is behind it. They are an example of everything that’s wrong with capitalism.
Beating them and showing them that even with all their money they’re still second best is the best feeling, I can take it on the chin when we lose to Arsenal, not when we lose to Chelsea. And arguing with Arsenal supporters is bad but Chelsea supporters are the worst.
I would choose the Rentboyz every time because they have the most universally hated players on their team, (Dogbreath,Terry,Cashley Cole,Ballack, etc….)Actually I just hate the fuckin club.They also play a shit brand of football,that may change with Deco in their side.The only players that I admire are Chec,Essien,Deco all the rest I cant stand.If it came to losing the title to either of these or the Dippers (God forbid) Iwould choose (begrudgingly) Arsenal all the time.