On This Day – 28th August
It is nine years ago to the day that Arsenal suffered one of their most humiliating defeats, losing 8-2 to Manchester United. I never saw the game, so I’m still in denial that it ever happened!
A fierce rivalry had started up between Arsene Wenger and United manager Alex Ferguson when the Frenchman took over at Arsenal in 1996. The two clubs were the top sides in England from 1998 until 2004 before Chelsea became another contender for the championship after investment from Roman Abramovich.
Arsenal had fallen away after moving to the Emirates Stadium in 2006, unable to keep up with United after investing huge amounts into building the stadium. Big name players such as Thierry Henry, Robert Pires, Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Vieira and Freddie Ljungberg had also left the club and weren’t adequately replaced.
Arsenal made the trip up to Old Trafford with a very hotchpotch squad. The squad was down to the bare bones and only a few first team players were available. The rest of the team was made up of a mixture of fringe players and the substitute bench had several members of the youth team. As an Arsenal fan, I think that’s a more than adequate excuse for the poor performance that followed.
The Arsenal line-up on that fateful day at Old Trafford was:
Wojzech Szczesny, Carl Jenkinson, Johann Djourou, Laurent Koscielny, Armand Traore, Aaron Ramsey, Francis Coquelin (replaced by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain), Tomas Rosicky, Theo Walcott (replaced by H Lansbury), Robin van Persie (replaced by M Chamakh), Andrei Arshavin. Substitutes (not used): L Fabianski I Miquel O Ozyakup G Sunu.
Danny Welbeck chased a fantastic scooped through ball by Anderson to nod in the opening goal of the game on 22 minutes. Robin van Persie then missed an opportunity to level the scores, having his penalty saved by David De Gea after Theo Walcott had been brought down in the United area.
Ashley Young curled in a fantastic effort from 20 yards to double United’s advantage after 28 minutes before Wayne Rooney added a third with a free kick. Rooney’s free-kick was from almost the same spot where Young had scored.
Theo Walcott fired in a consolation goal for Arsenal in the third minute of stoppage time at the end of the half but it was already too little, too late.
United scored three second half goals in six crazy minutes. Wayne Rooney scored a free kick to make the score 4-1 on 64 minutes before Nani added a cheeky chip over Szczesny for United’s fifth. Ji Sung Park then added his name to the score sheet after 70 minutes before Robin van Persie made up for his penalty miss four minutes later.
Arsenal defender Carl Jenkinson was sent off for a second bookable offence after 77 minutes, giving United the chance to compound the misery on their rivals.
Theo Walcott gave away a clumsy penalty with ten minutes to go and Wayne Rooney scored to complete his hat-trick, sending Szczesny the wrong way.
Ashley Young added his second in added time to end the scoring and in doing so, started the phrase “I’d 8-2 be an Arsenal fan” as a clever play on words to taunt Arsenal fans at the time.
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