Match rewind: Choose your favourite Arsenal win
For the better part of a decade it was the biggest Premier League game every season: Manchester United v Arsenal.
Choose which of these classic games you’d like to see streamed in full, and for free, on ManUtd.com and via MUTV's on-demand service on Thursday at 19:00 GMT…
The Reds headed into this one unbeaten in nine league outings, seven of which we’d won. As a result, United had established a 13-point gap over second-placed Arsenal, and this emphatic victory in February all but secured a third consecutive league title. Dwight Yorke was the the man of the moment and put a makeshift Arsenal defence to the sword, netting a hat-trick within 22 minutes of kick-off. Roy Keane and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer also got in on the act before half-time to ensure we headed in at the break 5-1 ahead. Teddy Sheringham added a sixth in the second period to wrap up a thoroughly miserable afternoon for the north London outfit.
A night remembered as much for what happened before a ball had even been kicked at Highbury, let alone for the six-goal Premier League thriller that followed. Keane famously told the opposition skipper Patrick Vieira that he’d "see him out there" after the pair locked horns in the tunnel ahead of the game. When things finally got under way, Vieira may have regretted his decision to anger Keane and co. Admittedly, it was the Frenchman who headed Arsenal into the lead after eight minutes, before Ryan Giggs levelled proceedings. In a fiery encounter, it was the hosts who led at the break, courtesy of Denis Bergkamp’s strike on 36 minutes. Yet, in the second period United ran riot. First a Cristiano Ronaldo brace reversed Arsenal’s lead, and then, after Mikael Silvestre had seen red, John O’Shea provided the most delightful – and surprising – of endings by chipping home a late fourth for United.
Four years on and Sir Alex’s men once again came away with the sweetest of results from the capital, this time in the second leg of our Champions League semi-final. United were aiming to win the trophy for a second successive year and a 1-0 win at Old Trafford in the first leg had taken us a step closer to the final in Rome. A week on, it took just eight minutes for United to further press home our advantage. Ji-Sung Park pounced on Kieran Gibbs’s slip and fired us into the lead at the Emirates, before Ronaldo produced one of his trademark, long-range free-kicks moments later. The Portuguese forward loved a goal against the Gunners and his second of the night, in the 61st minute, was a thing of beauty, as he combined with Wayne Rooney to score a devastating counter-attacking strike. Future Red Robin van Persie did net a late consolation from the penalty spot, after Darren Fletcher had harshly been given his marching orders, but it counted for little as United progressed to a fourth final in Europe’s premier competition.
UNITED 8-2 ARSENAL (2011/12)
Old Trafford has seen its fair share of breathtaking football over the years, but this August afternoon in 2011 was one of our very best offensive performances. As reigning champions, we welcomed an Arsenal side yet to score in their opening two Premier League games, and their fortunes only worsened at the Theatre of Dreams. Danny Welbeck headed us into the lead after 22 minutes, before David De Gea crucially saved Van Persie’s penalty. That spurred the Reds on and soon Ashley Young, Wayne Rooney and Nani were having their own personal Goal-of-the-Day competition. For Wayne, it was one of his finest showings in a United shirt, as he bagged a hat-trick in the late summer sunshine.
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