Arsenal – Man Utd Losing It’s Edge?

Of course I’m not talking about it from a fans point of view, more of a players.

In the past the great battles came from from players such as Patrick Vieira, Roy Keane, Bobby Pires, David Beckham, Ruud Van Horseface…….so on and so on, and now it seems all the players who added so much fire to this fixture have left in a very short space of time, and their replacements do not have the experiences of what this game has produced in the past.

Yesterday’s game at Old Trafford was a technical master class from Arsene Wenger’s red and white army, and from a fans perspective it felt just as good as ever to beat the old enemey, but the match lacked one thing. Controversy.

In almost every game over the past ten years there has been a major talking point, fights, hot spots in the game that has given the footballing world something to talk about for weeks and weeks after the final whistle, and yesterday we got nothing of the sort.

I feel the lack of dirtiness also reflected on Sir Alex Fergusson’s post-match statement as for the first time ever, the United manager was complimentary towards his old enemey and even said the better team won.

Ferguson said: ‘I think in the second half we looked tired and I can’t deny Arsenal deserved to win.

‘We had some good chances, particularly in the first half but not enough to win the match. I don’t think we lost overall control but in the last 25 minutes I felt Arsenal were stronger.’

In time, the ferocity on the pitch will return as the new players become less new and learn about the history of this fixture and what it means to the fans. Everything.