Back to the future for Gunners as meeting with old rivals ends one-nil to the Arsenal once more

The Gunners made sure the title race will go down to the final day thanks to victory at Old Trafford.

Arsenal's Leandro Trossard (centre) celebrates scoring their side's winner. 

TWENTY TWO years almost to the day that I sat in the same Old Trafford press box to report on Sylvain Wiltord’s goal securing the league and cup Double for Arsenal one of the greatest rivalries of the Premier League it sometimes felt like only the names on the shirts had been changed. The score certainly had not – a good old fashioned smash-and-grab one-nil to the Arsenal.

Man of the match that night in 2002 was Arsenal midfielder Ray Parlour, fresh from a couple of nights celebrating scoring a goal in the weekend’s FA Cup Final win over Chelsea. "The Man United fixture was the first we always looked for,” Parlour told me when we caught up to discuss this match earlier in the week. "The North London derby against Tottenham was big but more for the fans. United was who we measured ourselves against. This one is huge this season too. They have to take the title race to the end of the season. Massive match." 

Arsenal came here as odds-on favourites, but the thing is, United nearly always win this fixture. And this match was once again evidence of how the rivalry still runs deep as an injury-ravaged United betrayed their recent poor performances to raise their spirits and make life hard for Mikel Arteta’s title hopefuls. That was about all they did though; make it hard and show some fight.

Arsenal, meanwhile, seemed to play with the fear and weight of their ragged record here. They knew only a win would do to keep any vague form of pressure on Manchester City at the top but was that pressure the main reason for this average showing?

A behind-closed-doors win in 2020 was only their second since the Wiltord wonder night (one win in their last 16 visits to be precise), so optimism about a third victory in this match was not as strong as the bookmakers' odds wanted us to believe.

United were there for the taking and even Leandro Trossard’s 20th-minute opener did little to improve their fluency or positivity. Arsenal fans dominated the airwaves and their team dominated the ball until a spell towards the end of the first half which gave ten Hag and his men hope.

By the time we were well into the second half all one could hear was the United faithful making the most of their last weekend home game before the FA Cup Final in a couple of weeks. The chant of choice was their trademark version of Spirit in the sky… …’Going on up to the spirit in the sky, It’s where I’m gonna go when I die, When I die and they lay me to rest, I’m gonna go on the p*ss with Georgie Best.’ 

Gallows humour or genuine party time for the United faithful? Either way, it made for a compelling atmosphere. Arsenal looked weirdly wobbly under the weight of a strangely solid United resistance and the weight of expectation, holding on rather than gunning for glory. Very out of character for both teams this season, but perhaps indicative of the history between them.

Ultimately, it was all in vain as United’s attack was toothless and Arsenal saw out the must-win match with an 11th away clean sheet of the season in driving Manchester rain. It really was a throwback match – by no means a classic but absorbing all the same.

The main difference, however, between ‘then and now’ is that United have a manager fighting to save his job and a team playing for pride and wondering of Europa League Conference qualification is even worth it. The latest version of Arsenal has a manager in inspiring a team to finally reach for the brightest stars again.

Like the Arsenal teams of old they were prepared to suffer for their art and rely more on their defence than their much-vaunted attacking prowess.

Maybe Trossard will emerge as hero like Wiltord and others before him, but that relies on City dropping a point in one of their remaining matches against Tottenham and West Ham. Little chance of that, but Arsenal will have to raise themselves one final time to beat Everton on Sunday afternoon.

Arsenal forward Kai Havertz, who showed great skill to set up the Trossard goal admitted afterwards they would all be cheering on Tottenham on Tuesday night. Now that is something completely different to 22 years ago.