‘The Battle of the Buffet.’ How Sir Alex ended Wenger’s Invincibility. United 2-0 Arsenal. 24th October 2004.
Before Wenger’s once formidable Arsenal travelled to Old Trafford, they were 49 games unbeaten, started from the final weeks of the 2002/03 season before they went the entire 2003/04 season unbeaten. The Gunners were of course oozing in confidence going to their 50th game unbeaten and it was to Arsene Wenger’s nemesis, the great Sir Alex Ferguson. Would Wenger get the better of Sir Alex once again? Let’s see.
Manchester United lined up with the typical 4-4-2 formation, which was so often used by Sir Alex to great perfection. Phil Neville was the other centre mid along with Paul Scholes, with the now Lionesses manager lining up in his occasional position. The team that day looked like this:
Left Back: Gabriel Heinze
Centre Backs: Rio Ferdinand and Mikael Silvestre
Centre mids: Paul Scholes and Phil Neville
Wingers: Ryan Giggs and Cristiano Ronaldo
Centre Forwards: Wayne Rooney and Ruud van Nistelrooy
Arsenal also lined up with a 4-4-2 formation of their own, going away from the 4-4-1-1 which made them undefeated for almost 18 months in the league prior to that game. Dennis Bergkamp partnered Thierry Henry, with Edu lining up at centre mid with Patrick Vieira. Their team looked like this:
Centre Backs: Sol Campbell and Kolo Toure
Centre mids: Patrick Vieira and Edu
Wingers: Freddie Ljungberg and Jose Antonio Reyes (R.I.P)
Centre Forwards: Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry
1st Half: Manchester United 1-0 Arsenal (van Nistelrooy pen.)
When Arsenal had the ball, United were not looking to press deep into their territory. Instead, the centre forwards Rooney and van Nistelrooy looked to stay deeper. Wayne Rooney had the responsibility of sitting deep with Patrick Vieira, as he was distributing the ball to Bergkamp and Henry as he always did. And Sir Alex really wanted to cut that in order to nullify Arsenal’s gunning attack.
Because the fullbacks and defenders didn’t have any ball playing options at all, they remained conservative. So Sol Campbell and Kolo Toure had little choice but to use the long ball route to try and find Bergkamp and Henry. But that was calculated in itself, as Arsenal would then switch back to 4-4-1-1 with Dennis Bergkamp dropping deep and Henry was the man going forward, running in between the spaces United’s midfield and defence still had open for him.
That allowed Henry to run down the wing and Jose Antonio Reyes going forward into Henry’s position, because Paul Scholes and Phil Neville went deeper and could not go any forward whatsoever. Reyes drew Gary Neville onto him, making him the weakest link, therefore more susceptible to defensive errors.
Ashley Cole also went forward, as Cristiano Ronaldo let him go forward more often than not. Cole however, could not find either Reyes, Henry or Bergkamp. Why? Because Rio Ferdinand would intercept then deliver a ball to Ronaldo, which began counter attacking football from United. That’s why Ronaldo allowed Cole to go up in Arsenal’s attack, allowing Sol Campbell to be drawn out of position. That was a gamble well paid off by Ronaldo, as United had lots of goal scoring opportunities that day.
However, Wenger was quick to spot Sir Alex’s tactics, as he pulled Vieira forward from Rooney’s man to man marking and switched to Freddie Ljungberg, who schooled Gabriel Heinze that day, and crossed into Bergkamp which would’ve usually made it 1-0 to The Arsenal on a normal day. But he missed it.
The first half ended 1-0 to United, as Sol Campbell tackled Rooney inside the box without the ball, before Ruud van Nistelrooy calmly put it on the bottom right corner from the spot to send the Stretford End into cloud nine. His personal revenge was also complete with that penalty.
Patrick Vieira switched roles with Edu, which allowed him to make his trademark runs forward. Edu sat back defensively. That allowed Dennis Bergkamp to go forward as usual. As Thierry Henry ran down the left wing, Freddie Ljungberg partnered up with Bergkamp. As a result, Lauren went up and became less conservative and more attacking as a fullback.
When United were attacking however, Bergkamp and Henry would position themselves deep in United’s half to cover the pass delivered into central mid. Wayne Rooney would then drop deep to receive the ball by either of Ferdinand or Silvestre. Ruud van Nistelrooy had the attention of Campbell and Toure, so they pinned back to watch the Dutchman’s movements. This again meant that Phil Neville and Paul Scholes dropped deep, making Rooney very vulnerable to be trapped.
When either of Gabriel Heinze and Gary Neville had the ball, they would then hoof it to either of Giggs or Ronaldo or simply pass it to Rooney. This caused Ashley Cole and Lauren to make two choices to either cover Rooney/Ronaldo or Giggs/van Nistelrooy.
Because Henry covered the defensive role too, Heinze was more effective so he could easily deliver it to Giggs/van Nistelrooy, therefore making Lauren having to choose who to cover for. This allowed Scholes to drop deeper to receive the ball, making Giggs run towards the middle and become the third midfielder, rather than his usual hugging the touchline. Then Rooney would also come into the middle, drawing Lauren and making Heinze’s life easier going down the wing. However, Heinze was wasteful that day. And because of that, Arsenal were very dangerous on the counter.
Vieira made his typical play, passed it to Ljungberg but Ferdinand had him covered for most of the time. Always the risk of having one defender back, but it was Rio Ferdinand after all.
United’s second and final goal of the game came from Arsenal, with Alan Smith taking advantage of the space left by Ashley Cole, which then made Rooney overlap him on the counter. Rooney overtook Cole, made the run for Alan Smith who was the substitute for Ruud van Nistelrooy, and tapped it past Jens Lehmann to finally end what was an incredible run of 49 games undefeated. The streak was over!
The Godfather outwitted Le Professeur, and ultimately proven himself the best manager of all time as he was. Not even that pizza from Fabregas was to stop him.
