Robert Exley
Over the two years which followed the 1979 FA Cup Final between Arsenal and Manchester United, the two sides would draw 0-0 at Highbury in August 1979 and Arsenal would win 2-1 at home against United in December 1980 with goals from Graham Rix and Paul Vaessen. During this same period, Manchester United increased their spending in the transfer market, with £825,000 for Ray Wilkins from Chelsea, £1.25 million for Garry Birtles from European champions Nottingham Forest, £600,000 for Remi Moses and £1.8 million for Bryan Robson both from West Bromwich Albion. There had also been change at the helm at Old Trafford with the death of Chairman Louis Edwards from a heart attack in February 1980 just weeks after a ‘World In Action’ expose on financial irregularities. His son Martin, who allegedly preferred Rugby, took over as Chairman.
In August of 1981, new Manchester United boss Ron Atkinson swooped for Frank Stapleton from Arsenal with the paltry fee of £900,000 in comparison to the £2 million which Arsenal were seeking, set by an FA tribunal. According to Phil Soar and Martin Tyler’s Official History of Arsenal, Martin Edwards would comment afterwards that he wasn’t sure how United could afford the wages which they offered Stapleton to outbid Arsenal. Sir Matt Busby would also resign from Man Utd’s board of Directors in protest at Man Utd’s level of spending in the close season of 1981. As Martin Edwards would explain with regard to the signing of Bryan Robson: ‘he didn’t agree with the size of the fee. We paid £1.8m but Matt was against it. He thought it was a ridiculous amount of money to pay for a player and resigned. He didn’t want to cope with the magnitude of that kind of fee’.
In the Thatcherite spirit of the age, in the years ahead the answer as to how Man Utd would recover their outlay came in Edwards lobbying the powers that be to redistribute football’s wealth more heavily in favour of the bigger clubs within the Football League, even once going as far as making the crass comment that: ‘the smaller clubs are bleeding the game dry. For the sake of the game, they should be put to sleep’. Such moves included allowing the home side to keep 100% of the gate receipts in 1983 (with United, who even at that time had the highest average gate, being the obvious beneficiaries) and a proposed independent breakaway Super League from the Football League set up of distributing TV money evenly among the ninety two clubs. Edwards also would very soon find allies in the shape of Arsenal’s David Dein, Tottenham’s Irving Scholar and along with the two Merseyside clubs, would form the ‘Big Five’ which would successfully lobby for the formation of the FA Premier League by the early 1990s.
With regard to the competitive balance within the Arsenal v Man Utd. fixture at Highbury, it would take eighteen months and three goalless draws before the balance visibly shifted in the first leg of the League Cup Semi Final at Highbury in 1983, with United racing into a four goal lead with goals from Norman Whiteside, Frank Stapleton and two for Steve Coppell, with Arsenal pulling two back with goals from Peter Nicholas and Tony Woodcock. Frank Stapleton however, as seen from this post-game interview with Thames News, would shrug off the vitriol of Arsenal fans from that evening. Arsenal would go on to be eliminated over two legs 3-6. United however would lose the final 1-2 at Wembley to Liverpool, who on securing their third successive League Cup allowed Bob Paisley in his retirement year to climb the steps at Wembley to collect the cup.
Arsenal wouldn’t have to wait long for an opportunity to enact revenge on Man Utd. in the FA Cup Semi Final that year and took an early lead at Villa Park with a goal from Tony Woodcock, however sadly would be defeated 1-2. Vengeance would finally come to Arsenal at Highbury in the League in May, however it wouldn’t be caught by the TV cameras. Arsenal won 3-0 with goals from David O’Leary and two for Brian Talbot, however the crucial incident came with Peter Nicholas feigning injury to get the unpopular Remi Moses sent off and suspended for the 1983 FA Cup Final, a form of revenge for his X-rated challenge on David O’Leary in the League Cup Semi Final first leg at Highbury.
United went on to meet relegated Brighton and Hove Albion in the final, just scraping through the first match with a 2-2 draw and Gordon Smith missing a late sitter for Brighton. United however routed the Seagulls 4-0 in the replay, winning only their second trophy in fifteen years. Involved in both matches for United was an unfamiliar name to most people under the age of forty – that of Alan Davies, who stepped in for the injured Steve Coppell and set up two of United's goals in the replay. After this Cup Final victory, Davies drifted away from the top level of the game and sadly took his own life in 1992 when his wife was expecting their second child (coincidentally, Davies was reported to have been trained in his youth by convicted paedophile Barry Bennell as was Gary Speed who also took his own life twenty eight years later, although it must be strongly pointed out that Bennell’s link with either suicide has never been confirmed).
United finally won a league fixture at Highbury the following September in a 2-3 defeat for Arsenal with Tony Woodcock and Brian Talbot on the scoresheet for Arsenal and Kevin Moran, Frank Stapleton and Bryan Robson scoring for United. In 1984/85, by February an early Arsenal title challenge had faded out completely and a Norman Whiteside goal gave United full points again with a 0-1 defeat for Arsenal, which as pointed out by Brian Moore just prior to kick off, was witnessed by the King of Tonga. Later that season, Man Utd reprised their role as scouse treble busters from eight years prior, with a Norman Whiteside goal securing a 1-0 win after extra time, this time over League Champions and European Cup Winners Cup holders Everton. The main albatross around the neck of Ron Atkinson’s side however would be the League Championship, which by this point had nearly been twenty years since their last title.
The TV black out which occurred during the first half of the 1985/86 had encompassed an incredible eleven straight victories for Man Utd, most of which had been uncaptured by the cameras. One of which was however caught for foreign broadcast - their 1-2 defeat of Arsenal at Highbury in late August with goals from Mark Hughes and Paul McGrath for Man Utd and a late penalty conversion for Ian Allison for Arsenal making amends for Charlie Nicholas’s earlier penalty miss. Man Utd's title challenge however fell apart in the second half of the season with the reds slumping to fourth position, their title hopes ended with a 1-2 home defeat to Chelsea in early April.
The poor form for Ron Atkinson's side continued into the new season, with explosive striker Mark Hughes transferring to Barcelona and replaced by the underwhelming Terry Gibson and Peter Davenport. For the opening game of the 1986/87 season, Man Utd visited Highbury for first game of the George Graham era for Arsenal. At the start of the game there had been a minute’s silence for former FIFA President and Arsenal life President from 1980 onwards, Sir Stanley Rous, which had been ruined by the travelling Man Utd fans. Arsenal however secured their first home victory over United for three years with a 1-0 win from a late Charlie Nicholas goal. By early November, United’s poor form continued with them languishing at the foot of the table with just two wins from fourteen games, which led to the sack for Ron Atkinson with Aberdeen and Scotland’s 1986 World Cup caretaker manager Alex Ferguson taking over at Old Trafford, his first game was a 0-2 defeat to the Robert Maxwell funded Oxford United.
Fergie’s first signing for United would be poaching veteran right back Viv Anderson from Arsenal. Ferguson’s visit to Highbury came in late January 1988, with a 1-2 defeat for the Gunners with Niall Quinn scoring for Arsenal and Brian McClair and Gordon Strachan netting for United. Arsenal however would get their revenge a month later in the FA Cup, taking the lead through an Alan Smith header and going two up from a Mike Duxbury own goal, United however would pull one back from a Brian McClair strike. Michael Thomas would blow a chance to put the tie beyond doubt, losing his footing while through on goal and moments later conceding a last minute penalty for a tackle on Norman Whiteside. Brian McClair however blew his chance by blasting the penalty way above the North Bank stand, ensuring a 2-1 victory for the Gunners. Moments after McClair’s penalty miss, Nigel Winterburn would jibe at McClair and arguably lay the foundations for further flashpoints whenever the two sides met in future fixtures.
Before the end of that calendar year Arsenal would score two further victories against Man Utd, a 2-1 win at Villa Park in the Mercantile Credit Centenary Trophy Final with goals from Paul Davis and Michael Thomas, as well as another 2-1 victory at Highbury a week before Christmas with goals from Michael Thomas and Paul Merson, with Mark Hughes scoring for United on his return from a failed spell in the Camp Nou. Another Arsenal victory would be forthcoming twelve months later with a 1-0 win secured from a goal from Perry Groves. For Arsenal, this would be a period of two title wins in three years. For United however, the holy grail of a first title win since the swinging sixties fell even further away after finishing in the bottom half of the table for three seasons out of four.
Anyone born in the last twenty five years who looks back on the first four years of Ferguson’s tenure may wonder whether stories of a ‘Fergie Out’ campaign may have been prone to exaggeration. I can tell them first hand that it carried all the vitriol of the Wenger out brigade minus any remotely sizeable ‘Fergie Knows Best’ contingent. It was in fact a minor miracle that Fergie managed to limp into the 1990s without the Old Trafford axe falling on him. In this 2006 post-match interview, Fergie here is quick to cut through the ahistorical Sky Sports hyperbole to abruptly remind reporter Geoff Shreeves just how bad things were at the turn of the 1990s. Fergie came south of the border with the kudos of disrupting a thirty three year Auld Firm duopoly on the Scottish title, which quickly re-established itself on his exit in 1986, however as Charlie Nicholas would testify on the pitch there was still a huge difference between football north and south of the border even in the 1980s.
This Third Round tie with Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest at the City Ground is generally considered to be the match which saved Fergie’s job in January 1990, with Mark Robins popping up to score the only goal in a 1-0 win for United. Man Utd won the FA Cup in 1990, however confirmation of the re-birth of Manchester United as a trophy winning machine arguably came at Highbury at the end of that calendar year with an astonishing 2-6 defeat for an Arsenal side that were up to that point unbeaten in all competitions, with nineteen year old Lee Sharpe bagging a hat-trick. That heavy defeat was one of just three that year for an Arsenal side which won the title by seven clear points, despite having two deducted for a brawl at Old Trafford in October. The title was sealed on Mayday bank holiday that year, with Arsenal defeating Man Utd 3-1, with a hat-trick from Alan Smith. That month however, Man Utd would secure the first English victory in Europe since the lifting of the post-Heysel ban, beating Barcelona 2-1 with two goals from Barca reject Mark Hughes.
Man Utd’s last visit to Highbury in the Pre-Premiership era came in February 1992, ending in a 1-1 draw with David Rocastle’s last ever goal for Arsenal cancelling out an earlier strike by Brian McClair. The first Premiership fixture between the two sides at Highbury in late November 1992 came at an era defining moment for Man Utd as twenty four hours prior Fergie had poached Eric Cantona away from Leeds. Cantona however would be ineligible for the fixture and have to wait to make his Man Utd debut. The Red Devils were laying as low as eighth in the Premiership at the time of Cantona’s signing, but would go on to inflict a 0-1 defeat on Arsenal with a goal from Mark Hughes.
By the time of Man Utd’s next visit to Highbury eighteen months later, the Reds had ended their twenty seven year title drought and were heading for the double, however their title run-in slightly derailed by failing to win four out of five Premiership games after a 2-2 draw between the two sides, with Lee Sharpe stiking twice for United, whereas Arsenal’s strikes would come from an own goal from Gary Pallister and an equaliser from Paul Merson. Eric Cantona would also receive his second red card within a week, resulting in a five match ban for the controversial Frenchman. The final fixture between the two sides during the George Graham era at the end of November 1994 however, would end 0-0. The only home fixture against Man Utd during the Bruce Rioch in November 1995 era would be 1-0 win for the Gunners, with Dennis Bergkamp pouncing on a Dennis Irwin mistake.
The first fixture between the two sides at Highbury during the Arsene Wenger era came in February 1997. Andy Cole returned to haunt his old club with an opening goal, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer adding a second, with Dennis Bergkamp pulling one back for the Gunners, ending in a 1-2 defeat for Arsenal. The game however would be marred by an ongoing altercation between Ian Wright and Peter Schmeichel. Nine months on, Arsenal would enact revenge at Highbury with a 3-2 victory, with goals from Nicolas Anelka and Patrick Vieira giving Arsenal a two goal lead. Two strikes for Tottenham old-boy Teddy Sherringham before half time equalled the score, before former Manchester United youth product David Platt gave Arsenal victory in a season which ended in the double for Arsenal and North London’s finest becoming the main threat to Manchester United’s Premiership dominance.
In 1998/99 Arsenal enjoyed two 3-0 victories over Man Utd within five weeks. In the Charity Shield, goals for Marc Overmars, Christopher Wreh and Nicolas Anelka gave Arsenal victory. At Highbury in the League, goals for Tony Adams, Nicolas Anelka and a debut goal for Freddie Ljungberg gave Arsenal all three points. United however would finish the season with the treble and memorable victory over Arsenal in the last minute of the last ever Semi Final replay at Villa Park. The following August the sides would meet again in the 1999 Charity Shield, with a 2-1 victory for Arsenal with goals from Kanu and Ray Parlour. Three weeks later however, Manchester United would inflict a 1-2 defeat on Arsenal, with Freddie Ljungberg scoring for the Arsenal and two for Roy Keane to give United full points.
In October 2000, Arsenal would secure a 1-0 victory from a classic Thierry Henry strike. Anyone born this side of the millennium might find Thierry’s goal celebration as bemusing as a world where mobile phones aren’t the norm. Basically kids, it’s based on this Budweiser commercial, which captured the public’s imagination for a few weeks in October 2000 just prior to the dawn of the George W. Bush era in America, with this hilarious follow up eight years later with the election of Barack Obama. After three title wins in a row for Man Utd, in 2001/02 change came in the Premiership with Arsenal stealing the Premiership crown back from Old Trafford. Firstly, two second string sides would battle out a League Cup tie on Guy Fawkes Night with Arsenal inflicting their biggest win on Manchester United for thirty one years. Sylvan Wiltord bagged a first half hat-trick, as well as a second half Kanu penalty, as Arsenal won 4-0.
Twenty days later, in the Premiership Manchester United took a first half lead at Highbury with a goal from Paul Scholes. In the second half however a Freddie Ljungberg equaliser, followed by Thierry Henry pouncing on two Fabian Barthez errors gave Arsenal a 3-1 victory. The next meeting at Highbury was seventeen months later in the 2002/03 title run-in, with Ruud Van Nistlerooy giving United the lead after twenty three minutes. Two strikes for Thierry Henry gave Arsenal a 2-1 lead, with the second one looking very much offside. Within a minute of Thierry’s second however, Ryan Giggs equalised for United making the final score 2-2. The game would turn however on an eighty third minute sending off for Sol Campbell, which the linesman (@19.19) would literally described to referee Mark Halsey as a deliberate elbow in the face.
The title went to Old Trafford that year, however Arsenal would retain the FA Cup, meaning that the two sides would again meet in the 2003 FA Community Shield at the Millennium Stadium, with United triumphing on penalties after the game finished 1-1 in normal time. An Arsenal defeat during this period however would turn out to be a collector’s item, though Manchester United would avoid defeat to Arsenal in 2003/04. At Highbury in Late March, after Arsenal would take the lead with a blistering Thierry Henry strike, United would pull level with a Louis Saha equaliser with the match finishing in a 1-1 draw. Six days later, Man Utd ensured that Arsenal would not be emulating their treble of five years earlier with a Paul Scholes goal ensuring a 0-1 defeat for the Arsenal. Arsenal however would defeat United 3-1 in the 2004 Community Shield, with goals from Gilberto Silva, Jose Antonio Reyes and an own goal from Mikel Silvestre.
