Back to the future for Gunners as meeting with old rivals ends one-nil to the Arsenal once more

TWENTY TWO years almost to the day that I sat in the same Old Trafford press box to report on Sylvain Wiltord’s goal securing the league and cup Double for Arsenal one of the greatest rivalries of the Premier League it sometimes felt like only the names on the shirts had been changed. The score certainly had not – a good old fashioned smash-and-grab one-nil to the Arsenal.

Man of the match that night in 2002 was Arsenal midfielder Ray Parlour, fresh from a couple of nights celebrating scoring a goal in the weekend’s FA Cup Final win over Chelsea. "The Man United fixture was the first we always looked for,” Parlour told me when we caught up to discuss this match earlier in the week. "The North London derby against Tottenham was big but more for the fans. United was who we measured ourselves against. This one is huge this season too. They have to take the title race to the end of the season. Massive match." 

Arsenal came here as odds-on favourites, but the thing is, United nearly always win this fixture. And this match was once again evidence of how the rivalry still runs deep as an injury-ravaged United betrayed their recent poor performances to raise their spirits and make life hard for Mikel Arteta’s title hopefuls. That was about all they did though; make it hard and show some fight.

Arsenal, meanwhile, seemed to play with the fear and weight of their ragged record here. They knew only a win would do to keep any vague form of pressure on Manchester City at the top but was that pressure the main reason for this average showing?

A behind-closed-doors win in 2020 was only their second since the Wiltord wonder night (one win in their last 16 visits to be precise), so optimism about a third victory in this match was not as