In the beginning, there were only two. After Sky invented football in 1992, the Premier League’s first decade was defined by a titanic tussle: Manchester United’s immovable object against Arsenal’s irresistible force. Between them, they won 11 of the opening 12 available titles.
Embodied by their warring, irascible bosses Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger, theirs was a rivalry of philosophies, personalities and individuals who traded insults on the pitch, in the media and, in the case of one memorable encounter between Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira, in the tunnel. “It’s funny,” United midfielder Paul Scholes once said, “in team talks against Arsenal, the ball was very, very rarely mentioned.”
The Premier League’s two best teams chased each other’s tails for over a decade, providing a narrative of one-upmanship, fierce rivalry and, eventually, something resembling mutual respect. “Manchester United were my favourite enemy,” Vieira wrote in his autobiography. “I felt hate towards them, but also love. Without United, my memories wouldn’t be as powerful.”
Conflict was seldom far from the surface between two of English football’s most historic clubs. Yet it wasn’t until a 21-man brawl in October 1990’s (first) Battle of Old Trafford that hostility broke out, earning both teams – managed by Ferguson and George Graham – points deductions.
Things simmered in the Premier League’s first was far from alone in asking “Arsene who?” after Monsieur Wenger eventually rocked up in Highbury’s marble corridors in late September 1996.
