FERGIE vs WENGER - YAWN

Last updated : 01 November 2004 By editor

From The Guardian:

'The fall-out from the so-called "Battle of Old Trafford" continues to settle over the nation and the debate will rage on with Manchester United presenting a dossier to the FA imminently over the post-match fracas in which Sir Alex Ferguson was allegedly plastered by pizza and soup hurled by Arsenal players in the tunnel at Old Trafford. And no doubt still smarting at the three-match ban handed to Ruud van Nistelrooy, United are inviting the FA to examine footage of a challenge by Arsenal's Thierry Henry on Gabriel Heinze that Ferguson claims is worse than Van Nistelrooy's on Ashley Cole.

So much then for the supposed peace pact between the clubs brokered between the Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein and United's chief executive David Gill. If Dein and Gill imagine they are the men in charge maybe they should think again. Far from exchanging olive branches it seems the two managers, Ferguson and Arsène Wenger, have no intention of ending their feud. Whatever the rights and wrongs of what happened at Old Trafford, this over-hyped and ultimately disappointing match has been an unseemly blot on the Premiership season. The sooner everybody concerned, especially the two managers, grow up and give a proper example to their players, the better for all concerned and football in general.

Judging by the evidence of Arsenal's stuttering 2-2 draw at home to Southampton and United's defeat against Portsmouth, it is only too evident that the two Premiership heavyweights have taken their eyes off the ball.'