surrounded the Dutchman. Keown
infamously jumped over the United striker as
Lauren and Parlour looked to antagonise.
Ashley Cole squared up to Cristiano Ronaldo
and Lauren faced off with Ryan Giggs as
coaching staff pulled the players apart.
Six Arsenal players, two United players
and Arsenal as a club were charged with
improper conduct by the FA. The Gunners
were slapped with a £175,000 fine as players
on both sides were sanctioned.
“In a ferocious game, I think my players
behaved properly,” Ferguson said after.
Perhaps neither of the two managers could
honestly defend their players a year later.
Wenger had the bragging rights in 2003–
04, leading Arsenal to an unbeaten title,
though Ferguson knocked Arsenal out of an
FA Cup semi-final once more. Naturally,
game no.50 of Arsenal’s long unbeaten run
was scheduled for Old Trafford. Greater
Manchester Police spoke to referee Mike Riley
about the importance of the players
remaining under control, but what should
have been a spectacle of football rapidly
descended into a storm of tackles.
Rio Ferdinand could have been sent off
early, while Gary Neville and van Nistelrooy
were lucky not to be cautioned or worse.
When Wayne Rooney won a second-half
penalty the Gunners were enraged.
This time, Arsenal kept their tempers to
the tunnel. Campbell refused to shake
Rooney’s hand as pizza was thrown by Cesc
Fà bregas at Ferguson. An incensed Henry
had to be restrained, with Ferguson
defending his players from Wenger. “What
do you want to do about it?” Wenger asked in
response. In the aftermath, Wenger would
accuse van Nistelrooy of cheating, as well as
criticising referee Riley.
“We can only master our own
performance, not the referee’s,” the
Frenchman would conclude. It was the last
time that he and Ferguson would even be on
speaking terms for almost five years.THE ICE THAWS
With Arsenal moving into a new stadium
and Ferguson still competing at the top, the
pair’s rivalry never again reached the
animosity of ‘Pizzagate’. Games between the
two were no longer title deciders either.
In 2007, Arsenal would turn a 1-0 deficit
into a 2-1 win at the Emirates to make the
new ground feel like home for the first time,
while two years later, Wenger would be sent
to the Old Trafford stands, arms outstretched,
in an iconic Premier League image. By this
point, there was enough water under the
bridge, and when United knocked Wenger’s
young guns out of the Champions League
semi-finals, the pair shook hands as rivals but
no longer sworn enemies; Ferguson even
suggested that the two old masters of English
football could ride out into the sunset
together at the end of their careers.
Ultimately, it was a change in status that
changed the relationship. Ferguson retired at
the top, while Wenger’s job readjusted to
staying in the top four. Both recognised this.
“It’s unfair, the criticism of the man,”
Ferguson would claim in the aftermath of
2011’s 8-2 mauling of Arsenal, perhaps the
moment that signalled the end of the pair
standing as equals in terms of the Premier
League. Arsenal would even sell Robin van
Persie to United in 2012: once unthinkable,
but Arsenal were not in the shape to be
troubling the Red Devils.
When Wenger left management in 2018,
it was Ferguson who led the tributes,
presenting Wenger with a gift at the
Frenchman’s final trip to Old Trafford.
“He is, without doubt, one of the greatest
Premier League managers and I am proud
to have been a rival, a colleague and a friend
to such a great man,” Ferguson announced.
After all, Wenger was the only man who
could truly challenge him for so long. It was
lonely at the top before him – and then the
pair shared a unique, intense rivalry that
would provide some of the most talked-about
moments English football has ever known.“I won 13 leagues but I was never
near going through a season
undefeated. The achievement
stands above everything else, and
it was Arsène’s.”
FERGUSON (2021)“I’m ready to take the blame
for all the problems of English
football if that is what he wants.”
WENGER, IN REACTION TO COMMENTS MADE
BY SIR ALEX FERGUSON, WHO HIGHLIGHTED
THE LACK OF HOMEGROWN PLAYERS AT
ARSENAL (2007)
Above Arsène
Wenger is sent
to the Old
Trafford stands
for kicking a
bottle in 2009
Below Arsène
Wenger and Sir
Alex Ferguson
meet one final
time on the Old
Trafford
touchline in
April 2018ImagesJohn Peters/Manchester United via Getty Images (2004,
Keane/Vieira, 2009), Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images (2018)WEn GER VS
FERGIEWEn GER VS
FERGIE