Manchester United will play our 4,000th men’s top-flight fixture on Sunday, when we take on Newcastle United at St. James’ Park.
As the record 20-time English champions, we become only the fifth club to reach this landmark in the history of English football—joining Everton, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Aston Villa.
Fittingly, our opponents are one of our most familiar foes, with this set to be our 156th top-flight encounter. The first was almost exactly 130 years ago, when United were 5-1 winners at our old Bank Street ground.
Here’s everything you need to know about this historic 4,000-game milestone, thanks to some help from Opta…
THE VERY FIRST
Our very first game in England’s top tier was on 3 September 1892, a full decade before the club was named Manchester United.
At that stage, we were still known as Newton Heath, the team having been formed by railway workers at the Newton Heath Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Company.
The Football League was founded in 1888, but while Newton Heath — nicknamed the ‘Heathens’, ‘Railwaymen’ or ‘Coachbuilders’ — were a very strong side on the Manchester football scene, we weren’t one of the 12 best across the nation. So, it was four years later when the league was expanded that the Heathens proved themselves good enough to join.
Our first test came against Blackburn Rovers, one of the most successful teams of the era, who had already won the FA Cup — then the most significant trophy — on five occasions when we faced off. The Rovers were 4-3 winners on our first trip there.
REGULAR RIVALS
Blackburn, however, are not one of our most-faced opponents. We’ve played 14 teams on 100 occasions or more, and the Reds have come up against Arsenal and Everton on 192 occasions. Liverpool are next on 180, followed by Aston Villa (173), Tottenham Hotspur (168), Chelsea (161), Manchester City (160), Newcastle United (155), Sunderland (126), West Ham (125), West Brom (118), Bolton Wanderers (106), with both Sheffield Wednesday and Leicester City on exactly a century.
OUR FAVOURITE OPPONENTS
Sunday’s visitors are up there. We’ve beaten Newcastle 76 times in English top-flight fixtures, out of our 155 meetings. We’ve only beaten four teams more regularly. They are Aston Villa (89), Everton (86), Tottenham Hotspur (84) and Arsenal (77).
HOW MANY SEASONS?
Well, that’s something of a landmark, too. This is our 100th season in England’s highest division and our 50th consecutively, having immediately bounced back from our shock relegation in 1973/74 to return in the 1975/76 season.
OUR LANDMARK GAMES
The first was in September 1892, but what about the other milestones along the way to 4,000?
500th: 12 November 1921 — Middlesbrough 2 UNITED 0
1,000th: 1 October 1949 — UNITED 1 Sunderland 3
2,000th: 29 August 1973 — UNITED 1 Stoke City
2,500th: 19 April 1986 — Tottenham 0 UNITED 0
3,000th: 29 December 1998 — Chelsea 0 UNITED 0
4,000th: 13 April 2025 — Newcastle ?? UNITED ??
Between each landmark, a huge amount of special United history unfolded. From a middling side in 1892, we faced financial strife, reformation and then our first era of golden success — two league titles and an FA Cup — before a global war forced a pause to the professional game, all before our 500th game in 1921!
The gap between our 1000th and 2000th game encompasses nearly the entirety of the Sir Matt Busby era, defined by tragedy and triumph, while the jump from 2500 to 3000 is roughly the time it took Sir Alex Ferguson to transform United from under-performers into soon-to-be Treble winners.
So, what special memories will this club create for us before game 5000 comes around?
THE OVERALL RECORD
With 3,999 games played, our overall record since 1892 stands like this:
Wins: 1,916
Draws: 981
Defeats: 1,103
Goals scored: 6,860
Goals conceded: 5,083
Goal difference: +1,777
Thanks to Opta for their assistance.