Premiership, 1.2.2005, Arsenal 2 – 4 Manchester United

You would think any 4-2 at Highbury would be bloody great but what made this result so special is its context. After ending their unbeaten run at Old Trafford we were promised revenge by the Gunners, particularly from that little bitch Antonio Reyes who talked the talk ahead of kick off but who wasn’t even selected for the starting team.

Some would argue the game was won and lost in the tunnel, with United captain Roy Keane chasing Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira ahead of kick off. The referee held Keano back whilst Vieira skulked away.

With 8 minutes played you might have been thinking Vieira had won the mental battle when he put Arsenal ahead but Ryan Giggs cancelled out their lead ten minutes later. Arsenal went in 2-1 up at half-time but crumbled in the second half. Our one trick pony scored two goals in four minutes to put us 3-2 up.

To make things more interesting, Mikael Silvestre, who now plays for Arsenal, head butted the irritating Freddie Ljungberg and got sent off with 20 minutes to go.

United weren’t finished yet though, with John O’Shea breaking behind the Arsenal back-line to score the goal of the game. A lovely little chip evaded Almunia and wrapped up the three points for United and O’Shea celebrated with an expression that said ‘did I really just do that?’

My favourite Arsenal game of all time.

See part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4, part 5 and Part 6.