Battle of Old Trafford

The "Battle of Old Trafford" was a memorable Premier League match played on Sunday, 24 October 2004 between Manchester United and Arsenal.

Background

The equivalent fixture the previous season was a goalless draw, notable for Manchester United's Ruud van Nistelrooy missing a last-minute penalty before a confrontation involving himself and several Arsenal players, including Martin Keown. The ill feeling was originally sparked by an incident between Ruud van Nistelrooy and Patrick Vieira; having been fouled by van Nistelrooy, Vieira aimed a kick in retaliation, although did not make contact, he was still sent off for a second bookable offence. Van Nistelrooy was accused by both Vieira and Arsenal's manager, Arsene Wenger, of feigning contact to get Vieira sent off, while United manager Alex Ferguson defended his player and denied he had dived. [cite web | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/3127572.stm | title=Van Nistelrooy accused | work=BBC Sport ] In the wake of the match, four Arsenal players received bans after the incident and were given fines totalling £275,000 by the FA. Two Manchester United players also fined for improper conduct with a third warned about his future behaviour.

Match

Manchester United won the match 2-0, ending Arsenal's 49-match unbeaten run in the Premier League that had included the whole of the previous season (a first in Premier League history). It was played in front of a crowd of 67,862.

The match was notable for a series of controversial incidents; not for the first time a meeting between the two sides was followed by claim and counter-claim of unsportsmanlike conduct, bad refereeing decisions and diving.

The match was goalless until the 72nd minute, when Wayne Rooney fell to the ground in the penalty area and a foul was awarded against Sol Campbell thus earning Manchester United a penalty kick, converted by Ruud van Nistelrooy. Rooney went on to score the second goal in the last minute.

footballbox
date=2004-10-24
16:00 BST
team1=Manchester United
score=2 – 0
report= [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/3727552.stm (Report)]
team2=Arsenal
goals1=van Nistelrooy goal|73|pen.
Rooney goal|90
goals2=
stadium=Old Trafford, Manchester
attendance=67,862
referee=Mike Riley (West Yorkshire)

Aftermath

Sol Campbell was seen to refuse to shake Wayne Rooney's hand at the final whistle and tempers were reported to have boiled over in the players' tunnel. There were accusations that certain foodstuffs, variously reported as pizza, coffee, tomato soup or pea soup, had been thrown at Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson by an unknown Arsenal player.cite news |title=FA acts after Old Trafford battle |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/3950373.stm |publisher=BBC Sport |date=2004-10-25 |accessdate=2007-11-17 ]

The Arsenal coach, Arsène Wenger, later claimed that Rooney had dived to win the penalty. Mike Riley, who had attracted criticism as England's representative referee at Euro 2004 - specifically, for failing to award Latvia a penalty against Germany - was said to have made many mistakes during the match.cite news |title=Wenger blasts Riley's performance |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/3944123.stm |publisher=BBC Sport |date=2004-10-25 |accessdate=2007-11-17 ]

Ruud van Nistelrooy was charged with serious foul play after a challenge on Arsenal left-back Ashley Cole. [cite news |title=Van Nistelrooy accepts FA charge |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/3956273.stm |publisher=BBC Sport |date=2004-10-26 |accessdate=2007-11-17 ]

Former referee Jeff Winter said of Riley's performance, "It's more about winning than fair play now and if you get the decision then it's all part and parcel of the game but if you don't, the attitude is 'let's complain' and usually the referee is the easy target. But that game, with the baggage that goes with it, is almost becoming an impossible match to referee - and I speak from personal experience."

Premier League refereeing chief Keith Hackett said "We know this is one of the tough encounters of the season. Mike clearly had a game plan to try not to suppress the match. He wanted it to breathe and perhaps went in with the intention of getting through the game without having to dismiss any players. In the back of his mind was trying to get through a game without having a blow-up and I think Mike did extremely well to keep a lid on things."

Arsène Wenger was less generous; "Riley decided the game, like we know he can do at Old Trafford. There was no contact at all for the penalty, even Rooney said so. It's very difficult to take to see how lightly the referee gives the penalty. We can only master our own performance, not the referee's performance. We got the usual penalty awarded against us when we come to Manchester United and they are in difficulty. It happened last season and it's happened again." He also said of other incidents, "At some stages there were incidents, especially on [José Antonio Reyes| [José Antonio] Reyes] , where there was some deliberate kicking. The rules are there to be respected and only the referee can make the players respect them.

Arsenal's captain Patrick Vieira, whose rivalry with Manchester United's captain Roy Keane had become a key element of meetings between the two sides, said "You get used to it when you play at Old Trafford, we are used to it."

Vieira and Keane were seen to confront each other in the players tunnel before the return fixture later in the season, which Manchester United won 4-2 at Highbury. [cite news |title=Highbury tunnel players in clear |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/4228397.stm |publisher=BBC Sport |date=2005-02-02 |accessdate=2007-11-17 ]

References

External links

* [http://www.soccerbase.com/results3.sd?gameid=435230 Match info on Soccerbase.com]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/3727552.stm Match report on bbc.com]