[Bagor]

The Premier League is the richest league in the world but money cannot buy hate. English football is crying out for an immense, sprawling rivalry between two great teams. There have been some interesting conflicts in recent times but nothing close to the epic nine-year war between Arsenal and Manchester United from 1996 to 2005.

It’s the rift that keeps on giving. Five years after ITV’s memorable Keane & Vieira: Best of Enemies, Channel 5 is to broadcast a documentary on the broader rivalry between the sides, and especially the managers. Fergie v Wenger: The Feud (Monday 10pm) is an exhilarating hour of time travel that includes interviews with more than a dozen players, coaches and journalists – and a series of clips that instantly evoke the nuclear intensity of the time.

The rivalry ached with such importance, from the football field to the school playground, as to make a pacifist throw the first punch. It included everything from allegations of racism by Ian Wright against Peter Schmeichel to a pizza fight. There was also the Battle of Old Trafford, when Arsenal’s players manhandled Ruud van Nistelrooy after the final whistle; Roy Keane literally offering Patrick Vieira outside during a legendary row in the Highbury tunnel; and Jaap Stam being restrained by half of Highbury as he rumbled towards Vieira with extreme prejudice. “It’s funny,” Paul Scholes says. “In team talks against Arsenal, the ball was rarely mentioned.”...

...In many ways, The Feud is a love letter to two men. Wenger 1.0, the imperturbable outsider who showed English football that the future is also a foreign country; and especially Sir Alex Ferguson, the emphatic genius who outlasted Wenger to win multiple titles after Arsenal started to fade. He had a degree in people – “He’s the only person who understood me better than me,” Andy Cole says – and an addiction to competition. “The Gaffer loved a challenge,” says Steve McClaren, who was Ferguson’s assistant from 1999 to 2001. “He had to have somebody to fight. He had to have somebody to complain about. Arsenal. Arsenal. ARSENAL. WENGER!”

Each defined the other for a decade; it was the same with their teams. The signature achievements – United’s Treble and Arsenal’s Invincible season – were only possible because a Dutchman missed a last-minute penalty against them for their greatest rivals: Dennis Bergkamp in 1999 and Van Nistelrooy in 2003. It’s an apt reflection of a rivalry in which every achievement was heightened by the quality and hatred of the opponent. Without each other they would have won so much more – but the triumphs would not have been nearly as sweet.

https://www.theguardian.com/football...P=share_btn_tw