When Alex Ferguson made the long journey south to take
up his new post at Manchester United in November 1986, he would
already have been aware of the long-standing rivalries enjoyed by
his new club.
He will have looked at the fixture list and made a mental note of
the Boxing Day fixture against champions Liverpool at Anfield,
barely six weeks away. He'd have been glad of the breathing space
before his first game against City – not due until March – and the
home game with Howard Kendall’s newly formidable Everton at the end
of February. But he had barely begun to warm the managerial hotseat
when he found an unexpected new name joining the ranks of
significant United adversaries.
As a meeting between two of the most famous and successful names
of English football, Manchester United v Arsenal had always been a
big game, but before Ferguson’s arrival there had only been
flickers of real enmity. In October 1967 Denis Law and the Gunners’
Ian Ure were both sent off and banned for six weeks for fighting at
Old Trafford, but it didn’t create lasting bad blood. The only time
the clubs had properly fallen out was over United’s bid to buy
Frank Stapleton in 1981, which went to a tribunal and resulted in
the Highbury directors refusing to dine with their United
counterparts before the two clubs’ next fixture. Arsenal’s first
visit to OT during Ferguson’s reign, however, lit the blue touch
paper to spark a rivalry that has smouldered and intermittently
been ignited ever since.
On that day in January 1987, the Gunners were top of the league
under new boss George Graham, and had gone 22 games unbeaten.
United didn’t need much of an invitation to get stuck in. “It was
one of those games when big Norman [Whiteside] did about 45 fouls
and never got booked,” Sir Alex later recalled. “How he got away
with it, I’ll never know.” Arsenal’s David Rocastle eventually
retaliated and was sent off, and there were six other bookings. A
year later, revenge was clearly on Arsenal minds at Highbury in the
FA Cup fifth round. United, having been 2-0 down, had the chance to
equalise from the spot, but Brian McClair blazed over and Arsenal
full-back Nigel Winterburn followed Choccy back up the pitch to rub
salt in the wounds.
It was plain there were still ‘issues’ at stake during a 1-0 win
for Arsenal at our place in October 1990. Winterburn’s late tackle
on Denis Irwin provoked McClair to come to the rescue with boots
flying, followed by most of the other 21 players on the pitch. The
resulting brawl – later dubbed ‘The Battle of Old Trafford’ – saw
United docked one point and Arsenal two.
United avenged that infamous scene in more positive style by
thumping Graham’s men 6-2 at Highbury in the Rumbelows Cup that
season, but Arsenal took the return league fixture 3-1 in May 1991
on a galling occasion for the Reds: Liverpool’s defeat in an
earlier kick-off meant Arsenal were champions, requiring the
visitors to form a guard of honour. A period of United dominance
followed, in which we were beaten only once in the 12 league
meetings between May 1991 and November 1997, highlights including
Eric Cantona’s thunderbolt free-kick in a 1-0 home win in September
1993 and his glorious, looping volley over David Seaman to win the
corresponding fixture by the same scoreline in 1995/96.