Alternative Football History Part III – Arsenal vs Manchester United FA Cup Semi Final Replay 1999
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| “You’re not going to believe this Marty, we can go back in time and stop Ryan Giggs from running around Villa Park topless! We need to go back to 1999!” |
Ever since I started writing this blog, I’ve wanted to write articles in a fair and impartial way if at all possible.
This is virtually impossible for me to do when it comes to this particular game. The game that will be covered in today’s Alternative Football History is the 1999 FA Cup Semi Final Replay between Manchester United and my team Arsenal (I’m also an Aldershot fan!).
It is very difficult to listen to Manchester United fan’s when they rave about the Manchester United team winning the 1999 League, FA Cup and Champion’s League Treble.
Arsenal ran them so very close in both the League and FA Cup that year and if Dennis Bergkamp’s last minute penalty hadn’t been saved, I’m sure that we would have won the Double.
Any mention of their Treble success makes me think immediately of this Semi Final Replay. Dennis Bergkamp’s missed penalty in the last minute of the game is a particularly sore memory.
The worst memory of the whole game is Ryan Giggs’ wonderful winner. He picked up the ball on the halfway line and proceeded to slalom through the Arsenal defence before beating David Seaman at his near post.
However, the memory of Ryan Giggs celebrating by running around topless and showing the world his hairy chest and waving his shirt above his head is also mentally scarring!
What rubs salt into the wound with that Ryan Giggs goal is that it is shown on most FA Cup montage on TV. There is no escape from copious replays of the Welsh wizard dribbling through the ageing Arsenal defence with ease!
I included this Arsenal team in one of the first articles that I ever wrote on this blog. The article was about the greatest teams not to win anything and I firmly believe that this team was fantastic. I would go so far as to say that they were a marked improvement on the team that had won the League and FA Cup Double the season before.
1998/99 was Nicolas Anelka’s first (and only) full season at Arsenal and scored 19 goals in all competitions for the club. The young Frenchman had been brought in the previous season to replace Ian Wright but was used sparingly in 1997/98.
Kanu had been brought in midway through the 1998/99 season from Inter Milan and was adding some much needed goals when coming on as a substitute.
With Anelka or Kanu up front alongside Dennis Bergkamp up front, Arsenal had a much better strike force than the previous season. In 1997/98 Arsenal had Ian Wright, Luis Boa Morte or Christopher Wreh partnering Bergkamp.
In a way, I guess I’m being selfish with this article but I’m still going to publish it. Here is my Alternative Football History article and we will see what happens next…
The replay was an eventful game, in sharp contrast to the first game three days earlier, where next to nothing happened.
David Beckham scored Manchester United’s opener from 25 yards out in the first half. Dennis Bergkmp equalised for Arsenal from a similar distance in the second half with a deflected effort.
Manchester United had their captain Roy Keane sent off before Phil Neville brought down Arsenal’s Ray Parlour in the last seconds of the match.
The referee David Elleray had no doubts and pointed straight at the penalty spot and none of the Manchester United players argued the decision, it was clearly the correct call.
If you watch the video below and then pause it at 3:35, the alternative story begins there…
Dennis Bergkamp took the ball, put it down on the penalty spot and took a few steps back. The Dutchman looked very confident in his own ability, living up to his nickname of The Iceman for being cool under pressure.
A hush descended over Villa Park as David Elleray blew his whistle to indicate that the Arsenal forward could take the kick.
Bergkamp stepped up and side-footed the ball to his right and Peter Schmeichel (the Manchester United goalkeeper’s) left. The Danish keeper could only get the faintest of touches to the ball and it flew past his outstreched arm into the back of the net.
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| Dennis Bergkamp hits Arsenal’s winner past Peter Schmeichel |
Moments later the final whistle was blown by Elleray and history was to repeat itself. Arsenal would now face Newcastle United in the FA Cup Final, just as they had in the previous season!
Alex Ferguson was ballistic when interviewed by Sky Sports hosts Richard Keys and Andy Gray. In a situation very similar to the Kevin Keegan interview back in 1996 when the then Newcastle United manager became increasingly incensed in front of the camera, Ferguson ranted at Keys.
Richard Keys asked Ferguson if he thought that Manchester United deserved more from the game, Ferguson sputtered “Deserve more? Deserve more? Of course we bloody well deserved more. Parlour knew exactly what he was doing for that penalty and made the most out of the challenge by Phil Neville. He cheated to get that penalty and Arsenal didn’t deserve it.
That pompous referee Elleray shouldn’t have sent Roy Keane off either. Another referee making disastrously poor decisions when it matters most.
My boys performed incredibly well and outplayed Arsenal. It should bloody well be us in that Final and I’m sure that Wenger knows that too. Not that Wenger will say it though as he is a coward.
We are now going to go out and try and take the title off them. They only won it last year as we had injuries. We’ve also got the Champion’s League to think about and they’ve never done well in that have they? I’m done with this interview now.”
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| Alex Ferguson ranting in the post-match interview |
The Semi Final defeat changed Manchester United’s season and sadly for them, it changed for the worse.
They only picked up 6 points from the remaining 7 League games and lost 4-0 in the second leg of the Champion’s League Semi Final.
Alex Ferguson resigned from the club the day after the final game of the season stating in a press release that he could no longer manage in a game that was slowly being ruined by referees. Lazio’s Sven-Goran Eriksson took over as Manchester United manager in the June of that year.
He returned to football management at the end of the year, taking over from Craig Brown as Scotland manager after Brown was unable to secure qualification to Euro 2000.
Rumours had begun to be circulated b the press that Ferguson was due to be knighted in the New Year’s Honours List but this wasn’t to be.
Arsenal won the League and Cup Double for the second successive year after winning the FA Cup 4-0 against Newcastle United. Emmanuel Petit, Nicolas Anelka, Patrick Vieira and Tony Adams scored for Arsenal in a dominant display.
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