It has been over a decade since this game really mattered, and that shows no sign of changing either
‘This slice of pizza came flying over my head and hit Fergie straight in the mush.
‘The slap echoed down the tunnel and everything stopped – the fighting, the yelling, everything. All eyes turned and all mouths gawped to see this pizza slip off that famous puce face and roll down his nice black suit.’
Ashley Cole’s description of what happened in the wake of Manchester United’s 2-0 win over Arsenal in October 2004 is exceptionally memorable but that’s not the only reason to recall a game that didn’t just mark the end of Arsenal’s 49-game unbeaten run and the coining of the phrase ‘pizzagate’.
What it really signified was the last time a league game between Arsenal and Manchester United really, truly mattered. The build up to Saturday’s first meeting of the 2014-15, of course, will lead you to believe otherwise. But this clash now has far more in common with the overhyped games between Liverpool and Newcastle than it would like to acknowledge; both are in fact living off past glories.
Since the pizza game, the two teams have played each other 19 times in the Premier League. Arsenal have won just four, putting the idea that this is a real rivalry in some context. The combined score is 32-18 in Manchester United’s favour and if you throw in a couple of FA Cup defeats and that Champions league semi-final destruction in 2009, the record looks even worse from an Arsenal perspective.
We know from Roy Keane’s recent book that he believed that Arsenal was the biggest rival to United in his time at the club, and the midfielder has gone on the record to say he hated the Gunners during his career.
That hatred, that raw emotion, was evident in the games of the Keane/Vieira era, as the two sides were clearly the two best in the Premier League.
But now? Arsenal haven’t been a serious title challenger since the 2003-04 season, the season before pizzagate. They have been good for all that intervening decade, very good at times, but when it came to the crunch, or February, things would start to unravel and a serious run at the title would fade.
The reasons for that are well documented but the effect has been to turn what were the two biggest games of the season a decade ago into little more than just another match, despite the massive interest all around the world.
At least Manchester United kept up their part of the deal. Under Alex Ferguson, United were always in contention, of the real kind, for the title. For them, games against Arsenal turned from the crucible where titles were forged to another handy three points in the bag.
It rarely got out of hand, bar the infamous 8-2 in August 2011, but the result became immaterial to both sides. The four league wins Arsenal have had in the fixture over the last decade all came in years when United ultimately won the title, including the 2006-7 season when Arsenal won home and away. Arsenal always managed to attain qualification for the Champions League, even with all the dropped points to United.
It should go without saying that all involved, players, managers, fans, want their side to win and that in that sense the game does matter. But the game has become just another fixture in the grand scheme of things. United’s fall from the top rung since Fergie left has only exacerbated the fact over the last 18 months. For all the glamour, big names and huge crowds that will watch the game around the world, it is now little more than a meeting of memories, ghosts of challenges past.
The Arsene Wenger era may not be over, but it is clearly closer to the end than the beginning and Louis van Gaal himself has said that he needs three years until he can make United title challengers again.
Just like Liverpool v Newcastle, this game is a long way from being truly important again. It is sad, but it’s a fact. It’s as clear as the pizza on Fergie’s face one afternoon a decade ago.
