Arsenal vs Manchester United – Some Recent Highlights

The two most successful clubs in the history of the Premier League meet in London on Saturday. Here’s a few highlights of their encounters since the Premier League started in 1992.

1992-93

Manchester United win the first Premier League match between the clubs – a 1-0 win a Highbury in November 1992. Mark Hughes scored the only goal of the game. United went on to win the title while Arsenal finished 11th. Arsenal won both League and FA Cup.

1993-94

Manchester United become the fourth team of the century to win the double - Preston, Tottenham, Arsenal and Liverpool are the other teams.

1996-97

Wenger takes over as manager of Arsenal.

1998-99

Manchester United win the treble of League title, FA Cup and Champions League. Giggs scores the winner in the FA Cup semi-final replay against Arsenal at Villa Park.

2000-01

Manchester United win 6-1 over Arsenal at Old Trafford. Dwight Yorke scores at hat-trick for United.

2001-02

Arsenal beat United 4-0 in the 3rd round of the League Cup. The Gunners also win both league matches and take the title after beating United 1-0 at Old Trafford. Wiltord scored for Arsenal.

2003-04

Arsenal win the title without losing a game. The Old Trafford match ends 0-0. Viera is sent off 10 minutes from time after a tackle on van Nistelrooy. van Nistelrooy misses a penalty in the final minute of the game and is surrounded by Arsenal players after his miss.

United win a new semi-final against Arsenal at Villa Park.

2004-05

The two clubs meet five times. Arsenal win the Charity Shield in Cardiff 3-1. United win the league game at Old Trafford 2-0 to end Arsenal’s 49 game unbeaten run. The game is now known as Pizzagate after that a slice of pizza hit United manager Ferguson in the tunnel after the match. United win a 5th round match in the League Cup 1-0 and beat the Gunners 4-2 at Highbury in the league. The final encounter between the clubs is the FA Cup Final which ends 0-0. Arsenal win the penalty shoot-out.

Chelsea take the Premier league title, Arsenal are second and United third.

On This Day – Norman ‘Bite Yer Legs’ Hunter Born

29-10-1943: The fierce tackling Leeds defender Norman Hunter was born on this day in 1943.

Norman Hunter telephoned me once to say that he’d gone home with a broken  leg. I asked him ‘Whose leg is it?’

Les Cocker, Leeds United and England trainer from The Cassell Soccer Companion by David Pickering, 1997

Football News 28-10-2007

• English Premier League: Arsenal return to top of the table after a 1-1 draw against Liverpool at Anfield. Gerrard gave Liverpool the lead in the 7th minute but Fagregas equalises in the 80th minute. Liverpool had most shots on target (8-4) while Arsenal had the most shots off target (7-3). Both teams retain their unbeaten start to the season.
• English Premier League: Bolton and Tottenham the two teams that replaced their managers this week both had home games. Bolton gained a point in a 1-1 draw with Aston Villa. Tottenham lost 2-1 to Blackburn.
• Spanish La Liga: Barcelona and Real Madrid both won their home games. Barcelona defeated Almeria 2-0 (goals by Henry and Messi) and Real Madrid defeated Deportivo La Coruna 3-1 (goals by van Nistelrooy, Raul and Robinho). Real are top of the table two points above Barca in second.

Premier League – First Hat-trick

Eric Cantona scored the first hat-trick in the Premier League when he netted three times in Leeds 5-0 home win over Tottenham 25th August 1992. Rod Wallace scored Leeds first goal and Lee Chapman their fifth.

Leeds had won the league title the previous season but finished 17th in the first Premier League season. Cantona was sold to Manchester United before christmas for £1,2m. Cantona made his debut for United in the Manchester derby on 6th December 1992. He went on to make 21 appearances, score 9 goals and win a league winners medal in his first United season.

Premier League – A Quiet Start

The Premier League is known for it’s big crowds, full stadiums and lack of tickets. That wasn’t the case in the first season (1992/93). Here’s a few attendances from the first weeks of the new league:

• Coventry – Middelsbrough (15-8-1992 opening day) , 12,681
• Southhampton – Tottenham (15-8-1992), 19,654
• Wimbledon – Ipswich (17-8-1992), 4,964
• Oldham – Crystal Palace (19-8-1992), 11,062
• Liverpool – Arsenal (23-8-1992), 34,961
• Southampton – Manchester Utd (24-8-1992), 15,623

The total attendance for the 1992-93 season was 9,759,809. By 2002-03 this had risen to 13,468,965 and last season the total was 13,058,115 an average of 34,363 pr match. The lowest attendance last season was Watford vs Blackburn 13,760.

Sources:

• http://www.geocities.com/fapremleague/
• Sky Sports Football Yearbook 2007-08

Football News 27-10-2007

• English Premier League: Ex-Sevilla Coach Juande Ramos takes over at Tottenham.
• English Premier League: Chelsea hit Manchester City for six. Drogba scores two for Chelsea who are now one point behind City in fourth position. BBC match-stats give Manchester City 67% of possession but Chelsea have more shots on target (9-4), shots off target (8-3) and corners (9-3).
• English Premier League: Manchester United score four again. Rooney, Nani and Tevez (2) score for United. United move to the top of the table one point ahead of Arsenal who have two games in hand. Arsenal meet Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday.
• English League One: Leeds move to sixth as they win 4-2 against Millwall at Elland Road.
• Italian Serie A: Juventus lose 3-1 at Napoli.

Three Gone 17 To Go

José Mourinho (Chelsea), Sammy Lee (Bolton) and Martin Jol (Tottenham) have been sacked so far this season. Here’s the number of days the Premier League managers have been in office.

NB I haven’t counted leap years.

NB2 Multiply with 1440 to find minutes.

• 1 Clive Allen, Tottenham (caretaker)
• 1 Gary Megson, Bolton
• 36 Avram Grant, Chelsea
• 112 Sven-Goran Eriksson, Manchester City
• 164 Sam Allardyce, Newcastle
• 165 Chris Hutchings, Wigan
• 199 Lawrie Sanchez, Fulham
• 317 Alan Curbishley, West Ham
• 424 Roy Keane, Sunderland
• 448 Martin O’Neill, Aston Villa
• 511 Billy Davies, Derby
• 514 Gareth Southgate, Middlesbrough
• 688 Harry Redknapp, Portsmouth
• 1135 Mark Hughes, Blackburn
• 1235 Rafael Benítez, Liverpool
• 1477 Steve Coppell, Reading
• 2050 David Moyes, Everton
• 2143 Steve Bruce, Birmingham
• 4040 Arsene Wenger, Arsenal
• 7654 Alex Ferguson, Manchester United

Source:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_Football_League_managers_by_date_of_appointment

On This Day – Glenn Hoddle Born

27-10-1957: Tottenham midfielder Glenn Hoddle was born on this day in 1957. Pictures say more than a thousand words:

European Club Invincibles 26-10-2007

A week ago I listed the 13 teams that remained unbeaten in the Portugese, English, Spanish, Belgian, German, Dutch and Italian leagues. See last weeks list here.

Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid have disappeared from the list after that both teams lost their away matches last weekend.

Their where no games in the Portuguese league last weekend so their three representives  (Porto, Benfica and V. Setubal) remain unchanged.

This weekend the Premier League’s two unbeaten teams Arsenal and Liverpool meet at Anfield.

Here’s this weeks list:

• 3,00 Porto (7-0-0)
• 2,77 Arsenal (8-1-0)
• 2,60 Bayern Munich (8-2-0)
• 2,50 Inter (6-2-0)
• 2,50 PSV (6-2-0)
• 2,40 Standard Liege (7-3-0)
• 2,25 Ajax (5-3-0)
• 2,11 Liverpool (5-4-0)
• 2,00 Fiorentina (4-4-0)
• 1,85 Benfica (3-4-0)
• 1,57 V. Setubal (2-5-0)

The Kids are Alright – Arsenal Off to a Flying Start

Here’s Arsenal’s season so far:

• Slavia Prague 7-0 Home win in the Champions League
• Bolton 2-0 Home win in the Premier League
• Sunderland 3-2 Home win in the Premier League
• Steaua Bucharest 1-0 Away win in the Premier League
• West Ham 1-0 Away win in the Premier League
• Newcastle 2-0 Home win in the Carling Cup
• Derby 5-0 Home win in the Premier League
• Sevilla 3-0 Home win in the Premier League
• Tottenham 3-1 Away win in the Premier League
• Portsmouth 3-1 Home win in the Premier League
• Sparta Prague 3-0 Home win in the Champions League Qualifying
• Manchester City 1-0 Home win in the Premier League
• Blackburn 1-1 Away draw in the Premier League
• Sparta Prague 2-0 Away win in the Champions League Qualifying
• Fulham 2-1 Home win in the Premier League

Which gives the grand total of:

• Played: 15
• Won: 14
• Drawn: 1
• Lost: 0
• For: 39
• Against: 6

Most appearances so far:

• Clichy 14 (22 year old)
• Toure 14 (26 year old)
• Fabregas 13 (20 year old)
• Flamini 13 (23 year old)
• Sagna 12 (24 year old)
• Hleb 12 (26 year old)

Top scorers so far:

• Fabregas 9 (20 year old)
• Van Persie 7 (24 year old)
• Adebayor 6 (23 year old)