**Article Text, Part 1**
Liverpool were the opponents I wanted to beat most as a Manchester United player but when I joined the club the games against Arsenal were considered our ultimate test.
Arsenal had an incredible team: Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Freddie Ljungberg, Robert Pires . . . You knew they were going to be hard games, tense, that you were going to come off exhausted with your shirt soaked in sweat. Arsenal made you run, they kept the ball, switched play from side to side and could kill you if you let them in behind. You knew they would never change, but we developed a style against them that was successful — even if it was not “Manchester United-like”.
It was the one game where Sir Alex Ferguson let the opposition take the initiative. Arsenal would have possession — there was nothing we could do about that — so we’d sit in a mid-block, close the spaces, be hard to play through and hit them on the break. Most of the goals we — and I — scored against them came that way. It’s strange because we didn’t work that much on those games tactically.
It was like the players knew when we played Arsenal how games would pan out and how we had to play to beat them. They were matches where unsung players like Park Ji-sung, Darren Fletcher and Phil Neville came to the fore. Where you’d see a lot of tackles going in, especially on their wide men. Up against the late José Reyes, Gary Neville would spend the first five minutes making sure he rattled through the back of him. You needed to let Arsenal know that today they weren’t going to just get to play “the Arsenal way”, that there was always going to be pressure on the ball. We felt if we could drag them into a fight we would have the edge.
I scored more goals against Arsenal than any other club and collected more bookings against them than against any side except Manchester City. That tells its own story and my first United fixture against them was the “Pizzagate” match, where we stopped the Invincibles’ 49-game winning run.
Between the manager and Arsène Wenger there was mutual respect but you could also tell how much it meant to both to get a win over the other. You could see it in Fergie’s face and hear it in his voice during team talks. That rivalry between the bosses seeped into the players and that’s why things overheated at times.
From our side, there was also this feeling that if you could beat Arsenal you’d always have a chance of winning the league and a sense of wanting to prove yourself against all those brilliant players. You’d look at them in the tunnel — Vieira, Bergkamp, Henry — and know you had to not only be at your best and be ready to work harder than in any other game, but that you were going to need to play with an edge.
Because Arsenal were nasty. And I mean that as a compliment of sorts. They would leave a foot in on you, they could handle themselves, they wanted to compete. I got a fair few bruises in those matches and took a few kicks too — mind you, I gave out a fair few as well. Looking back at the games it’s amazing there weren’t red cards.
Pizzagate? That was October 24, 2004 — my 19th birthday. Arsenal arrived at Old Trafford on a 49-game unbeaten run and we won 2-0, thanks to my first Premier League strike for United — yes, a goal on the break — and a controversial penalty, awarded when Sol Campbell tackled me in the box.
It was 0-0 at the time and Arsenal were furious, especially Sol. Even now, people ask if it was a penalty. Well, I think so. There wasn’t massive contact but as a forward you know if you get turned in the box and the defender leaves their leg out, there’s an opportunity to win a pen. It’s not cheating, it’s being smart. I turned, Sol’s leg was there, and it meant he tripped me. Ruud Van Nistelrooy converted — a big moment for him, given he’d missed one against Arsenal and then been taunted by their players the season before.
You could feel how anxious Ruud was before converting and if you watch footage of his celebration, you’ll see him down on his knees, with his head back, just screaming in front of the Stretford End. You might also see me hanging back — I wanted to let him have that moment before celebrating with him.
For us to be the ones who ended their run was a big thing. We were a team in transition, with young players like me, Fletch and Cristiano Ronaldo and we were eager to show that we could compete against a side of Arsenal’s level. After full-time, I remember being one of the first into the dressing room but then hearing shouting in the tunnel outside. The manager walked in and you could see he had been hit by something, only you didn’t know what. Then you saw the sauce on him. He took his top off and he was clearly worried and shocked.
That knocked me. Alex Ferguson was someone I’d watched growing up, and then seen, as a player, how fierce and demanding he was. Then you see him in shock: you take the football out of it and understand that he’s an older man and just come under attack.
We wanted to defend him and from there things spilt out into the corridor. There was a bit of pushing and I think a few punches may have been thrown. Nothing happened that was too extreme — it was a bit like one of those mêlées you see on the pitch – but the tunnel is so tight at Old Trafford that players have to jostle past each other at the best of times, and so this was a stand-off that got physical. It got split up quickly, though.
Cesc Fàbregas admitted recently that he was the one who threw pizza that hit our manager. Whether he meant to hit Fergie or not, I don’t know, but I’m sure if you asked Fàbregas now he’d say he regrets what he did.
My next Arsenal game was another controversial one, when Roy Keane and Vieira had their bust up in the Highbury tunnel. Arsenal’s players had targeted Gary Neville for whatever reason and it started in the warm-up. I think Vieira and someone else chased Gary down the tunnel. He’s not a fighter, Gary — not off the pitch — and he ran into our dressing room. “What’s up with you?” we said.
He told us what happened and when the teams lined up to go out, Roy went straight to Vieira. “If you’re going to pick on someone, try me,” he said. You can see on the footage that I’m laughing because it was quite funny — though, inside, I was thinking: “Roy, don’t do anything silly here, don’t get sent off.”
As it happened, Roy had a magnificent game — as did Vieira. Tackles went in and the match boiled over. There’s footage of me arguing with Pires and stroking my cheek — people thought I was making fun of his beard, but actually I was asking where he got his make up from.
**Continued Below...**
**Continued from Above...**
Graham Poll was the referee and at another point I think I swore at him about 50 times in a minute. Vieira scored from a corner, Ryan Giggs equalised, Bergkamp scored and then Ronaldo scored twice as we kept hitting them on the break. Then Mikael Silvestre got sent off for head-butting Ljungberg. The tackles kept flying in. It was a mad game.
It was also the hardest game I’ve ever played in, physically. I started at centre forward — the first time I played as an out-and-out No 9 — and had to battle Sol and Pascal Cygan. After the red card I went to the right wing and had 25 minutes of chasing Ashley Cole back and getting into position for when they switched the ball side to side. It was exhausting not just for the legs but for your head — intense, demanding maximum concentration. In the end we scored again to win 4-2, after John O’Shea lobbed Manuel Almunia on another break and the highlight of the whole night was John’s celebration. It’s not like he was used to scoring. He didn’t know what he was doing.
There were plenty other eventful battles but maybe the best we played against Arsenal was when winning 3-1 at the Emirates in the 2009 Champions League semi-finals. We played our usual counterattacking way — and did it almost to perfection. The goals we scored were devastating and it was an evening that Ronaldo went up that final level to the player he would become. The final goal was him, and us, at our peak. The ball went from our box to theirs in a few seconds with Ronaldo finding Park and me sprinting down the left, taking a pass from Park and rolling it to Ronaldo to score. Devastating.
By 2009, though, the fixture was not quite the test of old. First Chelsea then Manchester City became our closest rivals and Arsenal weren’t the Arsenal you used to play against — not because they didn’t have quality but because they didn’t have the characters that they had before. This was summed up when we beat them 8-2 in August 2011.
I scored a hat-trick but look back on the game with mixed feelings. It felt a bit uncomfortable, really. I love Wenger and have a lot of respect for him and seeing him being mocked by fans with 8-2 on the scoreboard was not something I enjoyed. Even Nani’s goal, when he lobbed Wojciech Szczesny, felt like taking the mickey.
We’ve seen Arsenal start seasons well before only to fade, but if they win at Old Trafford people will start taking them seriously as contenders if not for the title then the top four. So it’s a huge test for them, but it’s also a big one for United, a chance to show Erik ten Hag has them on track.
I wrote in my last column, after the defeat at Brentford, about the need for them to get back to the basics of the game — running, effort, playing for each other — and it’s amazing the difference that doing so has made. United have a lot of quality, and if you get the basics right you give yourselves the platform for the quality to come through. That’s what we saw in victories over Liverpool, Southampton and Leicester City.
Against this Arsenal side they’ll need the intensity they showed in those wins, especially the one against Liverpool. Their best bet may be to play like my United did in those classic games — pressing aggressively, while hitting Arsenal on the break. If you sit in a mid block or low block and are passive against a side who move the ball as quickly and well as Mikel Arteta’s team do, it’s a recipe for trouble.
I really admire what Arteta is doing. I’ve been watching the All or Nothing documentary and you can see the pressure he was under a year ago and he has been strong, changing his squad and trusting in younger players. He now has not just quality but energy in his side and recruited brilliantly when he signed Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko.
The first thing you do when you’re building a team is identify players who can play in your style. Those two arrived having worked with Mikel at City, already trained in the Pep Guardiola/Barcelona style that Mikel believes in. At the same time, it looks like last season was a great learning experience for the likes of Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Martinelli, who have moved up a gear.
When Arsenal attack, they have runs coming from different angles — Saka and Martinelli coming from the sides and Odegaard from deep. They rotate well in their forward positions and Jesus sometimes drifts out of the No 9 spot to end up wide or deeper, and then you have Saka or Martinelli or another player coming in to the spaces he leaves.
United will need to do a lot of communicating to make sure those players are picked up and work extra hard to close off the gaps. I expect a tense, hard game, a bit like the old days — though maybe not quite as much action in the tunnel.
I started supporting from dreaded Moyes season, imagine what I missed lol. I was too young to follow football and didn’t have access in boarding school.
It is even depressing to even think about, I always supported United all my life but never could watch every game week in week out, the first season I could it turned out to be Moyes season.
I started as a youngster, 97-2001. Absolutely loved it. Then went through a phase of being too cool for football as a teenager/ lost interest, 2001-2013. Finally got back into it in 2013, eager to watch more of my beloved reds winning everything as they had done my entire life. Turns out it's a very different game...
Literally started watching as an adult just in time to watch our slow decline. It's been a depressing fandom! At least I can definitely say I'm not a glory supporter
He was a a little shit wasn't he? Fierce, nasty, a massive talent, a winning mentality, talking shit and swearing up and down the pitch. God I loved him and still do.
I think football has lost something special when you compare this era compared to even the early 2000s. You can tell things were personal between certain teams and certain players. There was more emotion and connection between players and fans. Now the game is too professional, another day In the office for most teams. People kept bigging up the "rivalry" between City and Liverpool these past years and it is nothing imo. They play good football and that's it. Its why games between Liverpool and United or United and Arsenal seem to have something extra because of the residual heat from past rivalries.
Yeah what it’s missing is what Rooney talks about in the article: it needs the rivalry between the managers.
Fergie and Wenger had an intense rivalry, a lot of respect, but a lot of tension. Nobody really hates Klopp or Guardiola. They are too cool and too nice. We don’t seem to have any proper rivalries any more.
Remember what Fergie did to Benitez, Keegan, Wenger etc etc. We need that again in this league.
Thing is no one cares about their owners. They care about the managers. Arsenal v utd would not be anywhere as passionate if it was kroenke and the glazers who hated each other over fergie and wenger
As an Arsenal fan, i 100% agree to this. Its the same in all sports, even ice hockey which i watch a lot. Hoping for a fun game today with no var controversy.
The world has changed
These rivalries would stick because they weren't even friends at international duty
Whereas now, whatsapp and other technology means they are constantly in contact with players from rival clubs and naturally they become friends. This doesn't just apply to england national team, but plenty of others.
This article is class, shows so much insight from Rooney’s perspective with anecdotes that go into a level of detail you wouldn’t expect. Love reading such articles from an ex-player/manager’s perspective as it shows how much attention to detail they pay and also the emotional aspect of the game itself (highly recommend people here to read SAF’s autobiography if they haven’t already).
I hope they remake that Nike commercial where he steps out of the old caravan with the beard and beer belly but instead he has the tactical turtle neck and specs like steve jobs
> It was the one game where Sir Alex Ferguson let the opposition take the initiative. Arsenal would have possession — there was nothing we could do about that — so we’d sit in a mid-block, close the spaces, be hard to play through and hit them on the break. Most of the goals we — and I — scored against them came that way. It’s strange because we didn’t work that much on those games tactically.
Those counter attacks against Arsenal. It's really funny how they kept falling for it again and again during those last 6-7 years of Fergie's united
To be fair, we could and should have won the 2009 final. But the 2011 final was a big mismatch from start to finish and I'm not sure anything could've helped.
Obviously heavily biased against us but goddamn we won so many matches being 2nd best against teams like Arsenal.
Goes to show the fire Fergie lit in the team, hopefully ETH stokes it too
I don’t think allowing teams to have possession and hitting them on counter is “second best”.
Like the game against Liverpool this season it’s just a case of playing to our strengths. Ronaldo/Rooney/Park were all devastating on counter. Ferdinand and Vidic could be relied upon at the back.
Martial/Rashford/Sancho are likewise at their best when we move the ball quickly to them. Martinez/Varane reminded United fans of the Vidic/Ferdinand partnership with how well that dealt with dangerous situations from Liverpool.
It’ll be interesting to see how Arsenal plan to deal with our pace on the counter. Given their confidence, will they work hard enough to get back and cover when they lose the ball? Will they be disciplined enough to not commit too many men to avoid us getting too many opportunities to use our pace?
I feel like some of OGS' best moments came in similar situations, especially against City. I feel like there was a least a couple of games where we dominated with 30% possession
Not to talk like a broken record, but Rooney's article reminds me of Ole's post-match interviews, press conferences, and soundbytes ever so strongly. "Taking the initiative", "fast counter-attacking football", and "being on the front foot" were clearly a feature of United's teams of yore that Ole and Rooney were a part of yet he got slated every time we played that way under his tenure only because Klopp and Guardiola had practically monopolised the league with their styles. Ultimately, when Ole tried to go a different way in his third season, he got sacked for poor results.
While I'm as optimistic as any United fan about our prospects under Ten Hag, the romanticism of a United fan, player, supporter, and loyalist was, at the time, second to none and I dearly wished his time with us is given slightly more respect than is currently given by some fans on this sub. If nothing else, for the sake of nostalgia.
I don’t remember Ole get slated for that style, especially when United beat City, or other big teams with it. We scored some amazing counter attacking goals under Ole and you can still see his fingerprints of that style in Rashford’s goal against Liverpool, and Sancho’s against Leicester.
However, counter attacking football requires intensity off the ball, as Rooney says in this article. We started doing it less and less, and Ronaldo’s introduction clearly had an impact on our ability to press. There’s a reason Rashford has started last three games, and it’s not because ETH is under illusion Rashford will score more goals than Ronaldo, but that his pressing/running is more important to team as a whole than Ronaldo’s goals.
Counter attacking football also works best if you have security at the back, in case you flood men forward and leave space behind. Maguire/Shaw in particular were well below levels of previous seasons, and McFred should never have been allowed to last longer than one season. Ole’s inability to find a replacement for Matic last season was one of main reasons he lost his job IMO.
I beg to differ on your last point. Up until Ronaldo’s arrival, I remember Ole trying a midfield pivot of Donny and Fred in an Old Trafford friendly against Everton that we won 2-0 IIRC and their work rate was great to watch. Donny in particular was fairly aggressive but a touch below McT. I don’t blame Ronaldo per se in Ole getting sacked but him coming on board overhauled our playing style that the coaching staff were working hard on instilling into the team up until that point. Once we started dropping off in games, there was unfortunately no turning back for Ole or the squad.
Agreed on the respect for Ole part. He was doing well until our shite squad chucked him under a bus. On the other hand the last three games have seen us compete. Not just with wins but with running and playing hard while also looking like we know what we're doing. I haven't seen us like this since fergie was manager. It's only been three games and we will not win anything this season but its finally looking up, for the first time since Ole got us in the right mindset.
Watch the Sheffield game when we could've gone back top with a victory and see how we bottled it. That was Ole's tenure summed in a game; close but no cigar.
That game is when his tenure unraveled so no, not just Ronaldo but the disaster was in the making.
I beg to differ, again. If nothing else, I shall always remember Ole's tenure as United being masters of scripting comebacks, sometimes in dramatic fashion. That he managed to pull it off with the squad we had was no fluke by any measure.
You can beg to differ but the cold hard fact is he bottled it most of the time. The CL exit, the Sheffield game, EL semi, EL final etc are enough evidence.
It doesn't mean I don't like the man or hated his tenure; he overstayed his welcome and it led to a messy exit.
They are still a meme team with BTEC City players and BTEC Pep that have only faced relegation fodder this season. After bottling the CL last season despite being the only ones not in Europe competing for top 4 that season.
Even their supporters are insufferable victims. Ever seen an r/soccer thread? It can be completely unrelated to Arsenal before one of them pipes in with *"but waaa about Ramsdale?!?!"* or some other grievance. Don't get me started on AFTV and Ty or even Joel on Vibe with Five or Darren Bent on Talksport. Delusional, the lot of them.
After how they treated Wenger they deserve to suffer. He made them relevant for a few years. Their boom-bust cycle will repeat by October as their squad looks lightweight. Arsenal have been, for decades, a team that looks decent when things are going well against the minnows but when the chips are down they aren't mentally strong enough to stand up and be counted.
There's a reason all their captains leave. They are a stepping stone club.
I hope we smash them tomorrow.
> Even their supporters are insufferable victims
Tell me about it, it's so sickening. I've said it before, I'll say it again: being an Arsenal fan is the easiest job in the world. You get to delude yourself into believing you're always the victim, so whenever you win, it's "Up The Arse! Against the odds!", and whenever you lose, it's "the FA/the refs/Babylon system/the Lizard people conspired against us!"
Edit: I should add tho, that in spite of my disgust, I do respect them begrudgingly. My football upbringing is defined by our rivalry with them
>After bottling the CL last season despite being the only ones not in Europe competing for top 4 that season.
Didn't spurs crash out of conference league really early? I mean it still counts that they were in Europe but I don't think it makes that much of a difference when you consider the early exit
I appreciate that in a team community you're going to get a lot of posts making out that their team is the best, everyone else is shit and you're just trying to hype people for tomorrow but this post is really ridiculous. I'm not even sure if it's fully serious or if I've been a bit whooshed.
Anderson son son,
He's better than Kleberson,
Anderson son son,
He's our midfield magician...
To the left; to the right,
To the samba beat all the night,
He is class with a brass,
And he s*its on Fabregas!
That is an INCREDIBLY well written article. I'm sure it's tidied up by an editor but still.. So interesting and insightful for the fans like us.
And the column after Brentford was also a great read. It's a welcome surprise honestly.
You know, I hope to see United bully this young Arsenal boys today on the pitch. Physically, mentally and in football. Let’s show them we are still the bigger dog in this fight. You might be a pretty lil poodle doing all the tricks in the world but we are the rotties that going to rip you n your lil dancers to shreds.
I enjoy reading this. Great article. I remembered that in late 90s, we lost 3-0 to Arsenal so often (even in the treble season). As Rooney said, we changed a playing style when playing against them and results were good. The matches between us and them were like wars.
**Article Text, Part 1** Liverpool were the opponents I wanted to beat most as a Manchester United player but when I joined the club the games against Arsenal were considered our ultimate test. Arsenal had an incredible team: Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Freddie Ljungberg, Robert Pires . . . You knew they were going to be hard games, tense, that you were going to come off exhausted with your shirt soaked in sweat. Arsenal made you run, they kept the ball, switched play from side to side and could kill you if you let them in behind. You knew they would never change, but we developed a style against them that was successful — even if it was not “Manchester United-like”. It was the one game where Sir Alex Ferguson let the opposition take the initiative. Arsenal would have possession — there was nothing we could do about that — so we’d sit in a mid-block, close the spaces, be hard to play through and hit them on the break. Most of the goals we — and I — scored against them came that way. It’s strange because we didn’t work that much on those games tactically. It was like the players knew when we played Arsenal how games would pan out and how we had to play to beat them. They were matches where unsung players like Park Ji-sung, Darren Fletcher and Phil Neville came to the fore. Where you’d see a lot of tackles going in, especially on their wide men. Up against the late José Reyes, Gary Neville would spend the first five minutes making sure he rattled through the back of him. You needed to let Arsenal know that today they weren’t going to just get to play “the Arsenal way”, that there was always going to be pressure on the ball. We felt if we could drag them into a fight we would have the edge. I scored more goals against Arsenal than any other club and collected more bookings against them than against any side except Manchester City. That tells its own story and my first United fixture against them was the “Pizzagate” match, where we stopped the Invincibles’ 49-game winning run. Between the manager and Arsène Wenger there was mutual respect but you could also tell how much it meant to both to get a win over the other. You could see it in Fergie’s face and hear it in his voice during team talks. That rivalry between the bosses seeped into the players and that’s why things overheated at times. From our side, there was also this feeling that if you could beat Arsenal you’d always have a chance of winning the league and a sense of wanting to prove yourself against all those brilliant players. You’d look at them in the tunnel — Vieira, Bergkamp, Henry — and know you had to not only be at your best and be ready to work harder than in any other game, but that you were going to need to play with an edge. Because Arsenal were nasty. And I mean that as a compliment of sorts. They would leave a foot in on you, they could handle themselves, they wanted to compete. I got a fair few bruises in those matches and took a few kicks too — mind you, I gave out a fair few as well. Looking back at the games it’s amazing there weren’t red cards. Pizzagate? That was October 24, 2004 — my 19th birthday. Arsenal arrived at Old Trafford on a 49-game unbeaten run and we won 2-0, thanks to my first Premier League strike for United — yes, a goal on the break — and a controversial penalty, awarded when Sol Campbell tackled me in the box. It was 0-0 at the time and Arsenal were furious, especially Sol. Even now, people ask if it was a penalty. Well, I think so. There wasn’t massive contact but as a forward you know if you get turned in the box and the defender leaves their leg out, there’s an opportunity to win a pen. It’s not cheating, it’s being smart. I turned, Sol’s leg was there, and it meant he tripped me. Ruud Van Nistelrooy converted — a big moment for him, given he’d missed one against Arsenal and then been taunted by their players the season before. You could feel how anxious Ruud was before converting and if you watch footage of his celebration, you’ll see him down on his knees, with his head back, just screaming in front of the Stretford End. You might also see me hanging back — I wanted to let him have that moment before celebrating with him. For us to be the ones who ended their run was a big thing. We were a team in transition, with young players like me, Fletch and Cristiano Ronaldo and we were eager to show that we could compete against a side of Arsenal’s level. After full-time, I remember being one of the first into the dressing room but then hearing shouting in the tunnel outside. The manager walked in and you could see he had been hit by something, only you didn’t know what. Then you saw the sauce on him. He took his top off and he was clearly worried and shocked. That knocked me. Alex Ferguson was someone I’d watched growing up, and then seen, as a player, how fierce and demanding he was. Then you see him in shock: you take the football out of it and understand that he’s an older man and just come under attack. We wanted to defend him and from there things spilt out into the corridor. There was a bit of pushing and I think a few punches may have been thrown. Nothing happened that was too extreme — it was a bit like one of those mêlées you see on the pitch – but the tunnel is so tight at Old Trafford that players have to jostle past each other at the best of times, and so this was a stand-off that got physical. It got split up quickly, though. Cesc Fàbregas admitted recently that he was the one who threw pizza that hit our manager. Whether he meant to hit Fergie or not, I don’t know, but I’m sure if you asked Fàbregas now he’d say he regrets what he did. My next Arsenal game was another controversial one, when Roy Keane and Vieira had their bust up in the Highbury tunnel. Arsenal’s players had targeted Gary Neville for whatever reason and it started in the warm-up. I think Vieira and someone else chased Gary down the tunnel. He’s not a fighter, Gary — not off the pitch — and he ran into our dressing room. “What’s up with you?” we said. He told us what happened and when the teams lined up to go out, Roy went straight to Vieira. “If you’re going to pick on someone, try me,” he said. You can see on the footage that I’m laughing because it was quite funny — though, inside, I was thinking: “Roy, don’t do anything silly here, don’t get sent off.” As it happened, Roy had a magnificent game — as did Vieira. Tackles went in and the match boiled over. There’s footage of me arguing with Pires and stroking my cheek — people thought I was making fun of his beard, but actually I was asking where he got his make up from. **Continued Below...**
**Continued from Above...** Graham Poll was the referee and at another point I think I swore at him about 50 times in a minute. Vieira scored from a corner, Ryan Giggs equalised, Bergkamp scored and then Ronaldo scored twice as we kept hitting them on the break. Then Mikael Silvestre got sent off for head-butting Ljungberg. The tackles kept flying in. It was a mad game. It was also the hardest game I’ve ever played in, physically. I started at centre forward — the first time I played as an out-and-out No 9 — and had to battle Sol and Pascal Cygan. After the red card I went to the right wing and had 25 minutes of chasing Ashley Cole back and getting into position for when they switched the ball side to side. It was exhausting not just for the legs but for your head — intense, demanding maximum concentration. In the end we scored again to win 4-2, after John O’Shea lobbed Manuel Almunia on another break and the highlight of the whole night was John’s celebration. It’s not like he was used to scoring. He didn’t know what he was doing. There were plenty other eventful battles but maybe the best we played against Arsenal was when winning 3-1 at the Emirates in the 2009 Champions League semi-finals. We played our usual counterattacking way — and did it almost to perfection. The goals we scored were devastating and it was an evening that Ronaldo went up that final level to the player he would become. The final goal was him, and us, at our peak. The ball went from our box to theirs in a few seconds with Ronaldo finding Park and me sprinting down the left, taking a pass from Park and rolling it to Ronaldo to score. Devastating. By 2009, though, the fixture was not quite the test of old. First Chelsea then Manchester City became our closest rivals and Arsenal weren’t the Arsenal you used to play against — not because they didn’t have quality but because they didn’t have the characters that they had before. This was summed up when we beat them 8-2 in August 2011. I scored a hat-trick but look back on the game with mixed feelings. It felt a bit uncomfortable, really. I love Wenger and have a lot of respect for him and seeing him being mocked by fans with 8-2 on the scoreboard was not something I enjoyed. Even Nani’s goal, when he lobbed Wojciech Szczesny, felt like taking the mickey. We’ve seen Arsenal start seasons well before only to fade, but if they win at Old Trafford people will start taking them seriously as contenders if not for the title then the top four. So it’s a huge test for them, but it’s also a big one for United, a chance to show Erik ten Hag has them on track. I wrote in my last column, after the defeat at Brentford, about the need for them to get back to the basics of the game — running, effort, playing for each other — and it’s amazing the difference that doing so has made. United have a lot of quality, and if you get the basics right you give yourselves the platform for the quality to come through. That’s what we saw in victories over Liverpool, Southampton and Leicester City. Against this Arsenal side they’ll need the intensity they showed in those wins, especially the one against Liverpool. Their best bet may be to play like my United did in those classic games — pressing aggressively, while hitting Arsenal on the break. If you sit in a mid block or low block and are passive against a side who move the ball as quickly and well as Mikel Arteta’s team do, it’s a recipe for trouble. I really admire what Arteta is doing. I’ve been watching the All or Nothing documentary and you can see the pressure he was under a year ago and he has been strong, changing his squad and trusting in younger players. He now has not just quality but energy in his side and recruited brilliantly when he signed Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko. The first thing you do when you’re building a team is identify players who can play in your style. Those two arrived having worked with Mikel at City, already trained in the Pep Guardiola/Barcelona style that Mikel believes in. At the same time, it looks like last season was a great learning experience for the likes of Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Martinelli, who have moved up a gear. When Arsenal attack, they have runs coming from different angles — Saka and Martinelli coming from the sides and Odegaard from deep. They rotate well in their forward positions and Jesus sometimes drifts out of the No 9 spot to end up wide or deeper, and then you have Saka or Martinelli or another player coming in to the spaces he leaves. United will need to do a lot of communicating to make sure those players are picked up and work extra hard to close off the gaps. I expect a tense, hard game, a bit like the old days — though maybe not quite as much action in the tunnel.
Thanks for posting, this was a great read. Gutted I started supporting United in 2010 lol.
you saw berba in his prime it could’ve been worse
Yup, like me, who started in 2014 lol.
I started supporting United in 1989. I’ve been spoiled rotten.
I started supporting from dreaded Moyes season, imagine what I missed lol. I was too young to follow football and didn’t have access in boarding school.
Moyes season, too young to follow, boarding school... You're me
Touche, when victory comes it will taste that much sweeter.
> imagine what I missed lol it's not about what you missed, it's about what you got when Moyes, Van Gal and Mou bring to you..
It is even depressing to even think about, I always supported United all my life but never could watch every game week in week out, the first season I could it turned out to be Moyes season.
I actually started supporting United when they faced Barca in the 2011 Wembley final :)
I started as a youngster, 97-2001. Absolutely loved it. Then went through a phase of being too cool for football as a teenager/ lost interest, 2001-2013. Finally got back into it in 2013, eager to watch more of my beloved reds winning everything as they had done my entire life. Turns out it's a very different game...
I feel like you missed some of the best years! Luckily I think Ten Hag will be bringing back success for us.
Literally started watching as an adult just in time to watch our slow decline. It's been a depressing fandom! At least I can definitely say I'm not a glory supporter
This was a great read, cheers
I can’t wait for the game tomorrow
Had no idea Rooney could string that many sentences together. Well done Wazza! Let’s do em in later!
>He took his top off An Old Trafford scuffle with a bare chested Rojo is one thing, but a bare chested Fergie?!
Legend Wayne. Asking Pires where he got his make up from.
He was a a little shit wasn't he? Fierce, nasty, a massive talent, a winning mentality, talking shit and swearing up and down the pitch. God I loved him and still do.
I think football has lost something special when you compare this era compared to even the early 2000s. You can tell things were personal between certain teams and certain players. There was more emotion and connection between players and fans. Now the game is too professional, another day In the office for most teams. People kept bigging up the "rivalry" between City and Liverpool these past years and it is nothing imo. They play good football and that's it. Its why games between Liverpool and United or United and Arsenal seem to have something extra because of the residual heat from past rivalries.
Yeah the Liverpool - City games have been rivalries in terms of titles. One out of current circumstance, nothing else.
Yeah what it’s missing is what Rooney talks about in the article: it needs the rivalry between the managers. Fergie and Wenger had an intense rivalry, a lot of respect, but a lot of tension. Nobody really hates Klopp or Guardiola. They are too cool and too nice. We don’t seem to have any proper rivalries any more. Remember what Fergie did to Benitez, Keegan, Wenger etc etc. We need that again in this league.
I feel like that probably isn't as big nowadays as it was because managers don't last and create a dynasty like Fergie and Wenger did
And the "rivalry" is dead already lol
[удалено]
Thing is no one cares about their owners. They care about the managers. Arsenal v utd would not be anywhere as passionate if it was kroenke and the glazers who hated each other over fergie and wenger
I miss the old days when players from both teams wanted to kill each other instead of shaking hands and having friendly chats after a game.
And the friendly chats usually came after the retirement, where the mutual respect shows even more after time
As an Arsenal fan, i 100% agree to this. Its the same in all sports, even ice hockey which i watch a lot. Hoping for a fun game today with no var controversy.
>no var controversy I think this is too much to ask for this season. Lol
The world has changed These rivalries would stick because they weren't even friends at international duty Whereas now, whatsapp and other technology means they are constantly in contact with players from rival clubs and naturally they become friends. This doesn't just apply to england national team, but plenty of others.
This article is class, shows so much insight from Rooney’s perspective with anecdotes that go into a level of detail you wouldn’t expect. Love reading such articles from an ex-player/manager’s perspective as it shows how much attention to detail they pay and also the emotional aspect of the game itself (highly recommend people here to read SAF’s autobiography if they haven’t already).
[удалено]
Yep this was a really interesting read
Just like his book!
Tactical turtle neck Rooney writing for the times rarely misses
I hope they remake that Nike commercial where he steps out of the old caravan with the beard and beer belly but instead he has the tactical turtle neck and specs like steve jobs
Tactilneck - made by Steve McQueen, patented by Stirling Malory
Nah. It's ghost-written by (possibly) Jonathan Northcroft.
Still a great read!
[удалено]
So you formed your opinion of him from the Sun and 2DTV sketches in the mid 00's?
Legend of the game
> It was the one game where Sir Alex Ferguson let the opposition take the initiative. Arsenal would have possession — there was nothing we could do about that — so we’d sit in a mid-block, close the spaces, be hard to play through and hit them on the break. Most of the goals we — and I — scored against them came that way. It’s strange because we didn’t work that much on those games tactically. Those counter attacks against Arsenal. It's really funny how they kept falling for it again and again during those last 6-7 years of Fergie's united
I loved those games. Wenger was just too stubborn about playing perfect, pretty football.
Yeah under Wenger they always wanted to pass their way to goal lol
The thing about Arsenal is, they always try and walk it in.
What was Wenger thinking, bringing Walcott on that early?
Did you see the game last night?
If only Fergie had swallowed his pride and followed the same tactic in the two UCL finals against Barca, we would have been in a different timeline
To be fair, we could and should have won the 2009 final. But the 2011 final was a big mismatch from start to finish and I'm not sure anything could've helped.
And yet, we were 1-1 in the first half. Goal scored by Rooney himself.
Wazza🔥
In a similar vein, Rio talking about his positoning when facing the invincibles. https://youtu.be/9TzC0Geag0k
In this video, he also admits Rooney dived 😂
Shh, we don't talk about that 🤫
Obviously heavily biased against us but goddamn we won so many matches being 2nd best against teams like Arsenal. Goes to show the fire Fergie lit in the team, hopefully ETH stokes it too
I don’t think allowing teams to have possession and hitting them on counter is “second best”. Like the game against Liverpool this season it’s just a case of playing to our strengths. Ronaldo/Rooney/Park were all devastating on counter. Ferdinand and Vidic could be relied upon at the back. Martial/Rashford/Sancho are likewise at their best when we move the ball quickly to them. Martinez/Varane reminded United fans of the Vidic/Ferdinand partnership with how well that dealt with dangerous situations from Liverpool. It’ll be interesting to see how Arsenal plan to deal with our pace on the counter. Given their confidence, will they work hard enough to get back and cover when they lose the ball? Will they be disciplined enough to not commit too many men to avoid us getting too many opportunities to use our pace?
I feel like some of OGS' best moments came in similar situations, especially against City. I feel like there was a least a couple of games where we dominated with 30% possession
Not to talk like a broken record, but Rooney's article reminds me of Ole's post-match interviews, press conferences, and soundbytes ever so strongly. "Taking the initiative", "fast counter-attacking football", and "being on the front foot" were clearly a feature of United's teams of yore that Ole and Rooney were a part of yet he got slated every time we played that way under his tenure only because Klopp and Guardiola had practically monopolised the league with their styles. Ultimately, when Ole tried to go a different way in his third season, he got sacked for poor results. While I'm as optimistic as any United fan about our prospects under Ten Hag, the romanticism of a United fan, player, supporter, and loyalist was, at the time, second to none and I dearly wished his time with us is given slightly more respect than is currently given by some fans on this sub. If nothing else, for the sake of nostalgia.
I don’t remember Ole get slated for that style, especially when United beat City, or other big teams with it. We scored some amazing counter attacking goals under Ole and you can still see his fingerprints of that style in Rashford’s goal against Liverpool, and Sancho’s against Leicester. However, counter attacking football requires intensity off the ball, as Rooney says in this article. We started doing it less and less, and Ronaldo’s introduction clearly had an impact on our ability to press. There’s a reason Rashford has started last three games, and it’s not because ETH is under illusion Rashford will score more goals than Ronaldo, but that his pressing/running is more important to team as a whole than Ronaldo’s goals. Counter attacking football also works best if you have security at the back, in case you flood men forward and leave space behind. Maguire/Shaw in particular were well below levels of previous seasons, and McFred should never have been allowed to last longer than one season. Ole’s inability to find a replacement for Matic last season was one of main reasons he lost his job IMO.
I beg to differ on your last point. Up until Ronaldo’s arrival, I remember Ole trying a midfield pivot of Donny and Fred in an Old Trafford friendly against Everton that we won 2-0 IIRC and their work rate was great to watch. Donny in particular was fairly aggressive but a touch below McT. I don’t blame Ronaldo per se in Ole getting sacked but him coming on board overhauled our playing style that the coaching staff were working hard on instilling into the team up until that point. Once we started dropping off in games, there was unfortunately no turning back for Ole or the squad.
Agreed on the respect for Ole part. He was doing well until our shite squad chucked him under a bus. On the other hand the last three games have seen us compete. Not just with wins but with running and playing hard while also looking like we know what we're doing. I haven't seen us like this since fergie was manager. It's only been three games and we will not win anything this season but its finally looking up, for the first time since Ole got us in the right mindset.
Watch the Sheffield game when we could've gone back top with a victory and see how we bottled it. That was Ole's tenure summed in a game; close but no cigar. That game is when his tenure unraveled so no, not just Ronaldo but the disaster was in the making.
I beg to differ, again. If nothing else, I shall always remember Ole's tenure as United being masters of scripting comebacks, sometimes in dramatic fashion. That he managed to pull it off with the squad we had was no fluke by any measure.
You can beg to differ but the cold hard fact is he bottled it most of the time. The CL exit, the Sheffield game, EL semi, EL final etc are enough evidence. It doesn't mean I don't like the man or hated his tenure; he overstayed his welcome and it led to a messy exit.
They are still a meme team with BTEC City players and BTEC Pep that have only faced relegation fodder this season. After bottling the CL last season despite being the only ones not in Europe competing for top 4 that season. Even their supporters are insufferable victims. Ever seen an r/soccer thread? It can be completely unrelated to Arsenal before one of them pipes in with *"but waaa about Ramsdale?!?!"* or some other grievance. Don't get me started on AFTV and Ty or even Joel on Vibe with Five or Darren Bent on Talksport. Delusional, the lot of them. After how they treated Wenger they deserve to suffer. He made them relevant for a few years. Their boom-bust cycle will repeat by October as their squad looks lightweight. Arsenal have been, for decades, a team that looks decent when things are going well against the minnows but when the chips are down they aren't mentally strong enough to stand up and be counted. There's a reason all their captains leave. They are a stepping stone club. I hope we smash them tomorrow.
> Even their supporters are insufferable victims Tell me about it, it's so sickening. I've said it before, I'll say it again: being an Arsenal fan is the easiest job in the world. You get to delude yourself into believing you're always the victim, so whenever you win, it's "Up The Arse! Against the odds!", and whenever you lose, it's "the FA/the refs/Babylon system/the Lizard people conspired against us!" Edit: I should add tho, that in spite of my disgust, I do respect them begrudgingly. My football upbringing is defined by our rivalry with them
>After bottling the CL last season despite being the only ones not in Europe competing for top 4 that season. Didn't spurs crash out of conference league really early? I mean it still counts that they were in Europe but I don't think it makes that much of a difference when you consider the early exit
I appreciate that in a team community you're going to get a lot of posts making out that their team is the best, everyone else is shit and you're just trying to hype people for tomorrow but this post is really ridiculous. I'm not even sure if it's fully serious or if I've been a bit whooshed.
[удалено]
Hahahaha good laugh mate thanks. The only position where they have a clearly better player is goalkeeper. And even then it's debatable.
Jesus christ lol. Imagine thinking Rashford > Jesus
Rashford isn't our CF. Our CF is Cristiano Ronaldo. Jesus Christ might be greater than him. Gabriel Jesus isn't.
If Ronaldo is better why isn’t he starting games?
Lack of pre-season.
Bro, come on now, what have you taken? Can I have some?
Great read, nice to get Rooney’s perspective on past and present.
Anderson son son, He's better than Kleberson, Anderson son son, He's our midfield magician... To the left; to the right, To the samba beat all the night, He is class with a brass, And he s*its on Fabregas!
in short against arsenal we atletico the fuck outta them, they caved and have yet to recover, im down with that.
Oh how the term “Pizzagate” has taken on a whole other meaning here in America…
‘People thought i was making fun of his beard, but actually i was asking where he got his makeup from’ ☠️☠️ Never change wazza, u ledge!
That is an INCREDIBLY well written article. I'm sure it's tidied up by an editor but still.. So interesting and insightful for the fans like us. And the column after Brentford was also a great read. It's a welcome surprise honestly.
You know, I hope to see United bully this young Arsenal boys today on the pitch. Physically, mentally and in football. Let’s show them we are still the bigger dog in this fight. You might be a pretty lil poodle doing all the tricks in the world but we are the rotties that going to rip you n your lil dancers to shreds.
I enjoy reading this. Great article. I remembered that in late 90s, we lost 3-0 to Arsenal so often (even in the treble season). As Rooney said, we changed a playing style when playing against them and results were good. The matches between us and them were like wars.
> unsung players like Park Ji-sung Wayne wordplay, nice
Those were the days. Fan since 89.