Arsenal travel to Old Trafford this weekend to take on Manchester United in what will be their next big game of a potentially historic season.
Mikel Arteta’s side are running out of games if they are to win their first Premier League title since 2004, but must keep winning if they are to unseat seemingly undisputed Manchester City.
Next up are a bottom United, who come into the game off the back of a 4-0 humiliation against Crystal Palace at the start of the week, but with nothing to lose.
A defeat in Manchester would almost certainly mean the end of any title hopes. And Old Trafford is not an easy place to go, at least historically.
The Gunners will have the same confidence in the result as they did 20 years ago. It ended 0-0 that day, but it was a match that has remained in the memory of one particular player who participated in the match.
Arsenal will travel to Manchester United this week, 20 years after the Old Trafford battle
The 0-0 draw between the two teams in 2003 was a heated match in which Patrick Vieira (left) was sent off.
Mail Sport’s Martin Keown (right) gave an insight into that day two decades ago to Mail Sport.
The VAR would have changed the penalty decision
Mail Sport’s Martin Keown is somewhat the poster boy for the day, for better or worse. Having conceded a penalty in the last minute, Ruud van Nistelrooy missed the penalty for United, prompting ecstatic scenes from the Arsenal players.
Keown had fouled Diego Forlán late in the game and celebrated in Van Nistelrooy’s face when he missed the shot. At the end of the match, several Gunners players surrounded the Dutchman. However, everything could have been avoided if it had been for the VAR.
The striker was involved in the red card early in the match that saw Arsenal’s Patrick Vieira sent off for a clash with Van Nistelrooy. It was not a situation that the visiting players took very well.
“If you look back at the challenge, I can see that whoever plays, you can see that Van Nistelrooy, when he comes up to the challenge, leaves everything to Patrick,” Keown told Mail Sport earlier this season. “He came in with his leg, they sent him off, Patrick tried to react a little and Van Nistelrooy cowers in fear as if he had been hit.
‘You could say it’s a good decision because of the angle the referee has. VAR today would just eliminate that completely, it’s ridiculous.
“We knew this was a comfortable game. We were always worried about everyone else in the league going there because they had that aura. In those days, you were lucky to get a free kick, let alone a penalty at Old Trafford. It was almost unheard of. , it was a really difficult place to visit, but for us it wasn’t, we loved it.
“When you look at the players, World Cup winners, wonderful talents everywhere, they knew face to face that they were in trouble, and we knew that we were better than them, as good as them. They won the treble and we won the doublet.
Keown confronted Van Nistelrooy after the striker missed a late penalty to win the match.
Mikel Arteta’s side will travel to Manchester this weekend to keep their Premier League title hopes alive.
“We didn’t trust Van Nistelrooy”
At first glance, it seemed difficult to understand why the players were so angry with Van Nistlerooy. He had been involved in the red card, but the Arsenal players went a step further.
What followed at full time was pushing, shoving, an exchange of very heated words and several players from both teams involved in the melee.
“There was a tremendous rivalry between the two teams, but it was about trust,” Keown said. “We didn’t trust Ruud Van Nistelrooy because he was a tremendously intelligent and intelligent player.
“He would fall out of nowhere in the penalty area like a deck of cards. He would get in an offside position when the ball was turned over, and when it was turned over, you had 10 yards to make up for it. Very intelligent player, relentless in front of goal.
‘He trampled me. The little one where you back up to the forward and walk away to come back, he’s stepping on your feet. We felt that he had wronged us, I was more reactive than proactive. Patrick Vieira paid the most price, people were trying to light that flame and I think Van Nistelrooy went after him that day. We were giving it to him, we felt like he was going too far.’
He revealed that Arsenal players were angry at the striker’s antics, prompting their full-time reactions.
Keown, who gave away the penalty, was quick to celebrate the ruling in Van Nistelrooy’s face.
United fans outside the house.
For Keown, the matter was practically over as soon as he left the field. On to the next game. But United fans should not forget it quickly, nor should the media, fans in general or coaches.
Arsene Wenger was forced to publicly defend the defender. Even Keown’s wife questioned his antics. United fans took matters into their own hands.
“People thought he was going below the line, that was an issue with that team,” Keown added. “Someone came to work with us because we sent players off every week. In 2002 we won the league with approximately 10 men.
‘The enormity of this surprised me. Our photographer said someone said he had an amazing photo and it was photo of the year. A certain newspaper asked me to take a photo with him. I wasn’t going to do it.
“It was a strange situation because at the end of the season everything fell apart. It wasn’t in our minds, we had failed. We should have won the FA Cup, we should have won the Champions League. Wherever I put the TV, it was on. Even In the House of Lords they were discussing how he should be suspended for six months. How was he going to escape it?
‘I had graffiti outside my house. She didn’t know anyone knew where she lived, she was in a small town outside of Oxford. Suddenly I have United fans at my door.
‘My wife said, “I think you already did it.” But it was kind of like a playground. People tried to pressure me into saying I was sorry. I made my decisions based on what I knew then, so I don’t regret anything.’
Keown revealed that Manchester United fans turned up outside his house after the match.
Inside the Arsenal dressing room
Wenger publicly backed his player, but what did he really think?
He had seen his team act like men possessed all the time, targeting one player.
“The way it worked with Arsene Wenger is that he created an environment where you went to him if you thought you had gone too far,” Keown said. ‘He didn’t need to come see me.
‘A couple of days later, I went to see him and told him it wasn’t ideal, and he said, “Yes, Martin, but we’ll sort it out,” and so we did. It wasn’t like having a father in your ear. I didn’t manage, but you are the ultimate role model and that’s how it was with Arsene Wenger.
“He didn’t have to tell me, he knew it wasn’t ideal.” But it was about passion, spirit and we would not be denied that again, because Manchester United seemed to keep getting in the way and it was always this particular player who seemed to be causing us a problem. And it didn’t work, we remained undefeated, but that team should have won the treble.”
Arsenal would win the league in what would become the famous Invincibles season. 15 points ahead of United, who were practically serial winners.
“Then it was buoyant,” Keown added. “If you went to Old Trafford and drew or won, you knew you were in the race.
‘If that (penalty) had gone in, I would have been to blame. We are in a blame situation and people would have pointed at me and said I committed a penalty. For me it was very important that that penalty was missed.
‘The time was changing when young people were beginning to become leaders. A locker room with responsibility. There is a demand, you can see it in their eyes, we were reaching that stage. Thierry Henry was almost unplayable in that period. “He went through this incredible period and he didn’t want to let these people down.”
He spoke about how then-Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger (pictured) handled the aftermath of the match.
The former defender explained his coach’s true feelings about the events and how he approached his coach
Keown also spoke about how he would stop Sir Alex Ferguson (pictured) from approaching the referees.
To stop Fergie
At the top of the United tree, the man leading the troops was Sir Alex Ferguson.
“Fergie time” is a phrase many will be familiar with. An ironic saying that suggested that matches would be played until the Scottish teams scored.
In the past, there have been suggestions that referees were bullied at Old Trafford. Not under Keown’s watch.
“I tried to keep the referee away in 1999,” he said. ‘What I saw at half-time was shocking, it was after the referee. I thought, “That won’t happen again.” I pushed him away, I wasn’t being physical, I just wanted him to stop. I felt like the referee was a little intimidated in that second half.
‘I looked for him every time we went to play against them, to see if he was around. She wasn’t going to run into the locker room.
What REALLY happened at the Battle of Old Trafford: Watch it on Mail Sport YouTube
