Arsenal visit Old Trafford to face Manchester United today for a fixture which is likely to revive memories of some of the English game’s most bitter battles.
After a decade of fighting tooth and nail for the top prizes, images of Roy Keane’s tunnel row with Patrick Vieira, Martin Keown’s gleeful celebration of a Ruud van Nistelrooy penalty miss and the juicy tales of “pizza-gate” following a United win over the Gunners are etched in the memory.
The rivalry between the two clubs has been less fierce in recent years as Arsenal faded from the picture.
But the meeting between the teams in the Champions League semi-finals last season — a tie easily won by United — and Arsenal’s impressive start to the current campaign gives this weekend’s game a more combustible look.
Outsiders and pundits have queued up to tell Gunners boss Arsene Wenger that the best years are behind his team — his greatest team being the unbeaten “Invincibles” side of 2003-2004 — but the Frenchman himself begs to differ as he is again backing his side to win the Premier League.
Despite having not won any significant silverware since 2005, Wenger refuses to be fazed, backing the young age of his team to stand Arsenal in good stead.
“A team which averages 28 or 29 years old can maybe improve by 5 percent but a team averaging 22 years old can improve by 30 percent,” he said.
Sir Alex Ferguson will be one of those men mentioned trying to stop Wenger from completing his wish of winning the Premier League but United’s season has not got off to the most comprehensive of starts ahead of Arsenal’s visit.
A 1-0 loss to newcomers Burnley was a huge surprise and prompted many to suggest United are not the same side without Cristiano Ronaldo following his move to Real Madrid.
But United will go into the Arsenal encounter buoyed by a 5-0 victory over Wigan — the perfect response to the critics following their loss at Turf Moor.
The team has been creatively led by Wayne Rooney since Ronaldo’s departure and he has magnificently repaid Ferguson’s faith by having his best ever start to a Premier League campaign with four goals in three matches.
United are likely to need all his abilities against Arsenal but he is confident he can fulfill Ferguson’s expectations of 25 goals this season.
Rooney said: “Of course 25 is a target which I hope I’m going to reach.”
“I’ve always said I should score more and hopefully I’ll do that this season. I’ve got what I wanted. I like to play through the middle,” he said. “The manager has come out now and said I am going to play there throughout the season so I’m delighted with that.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but