October 20 - Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting

HERE at OTFD we believe that fighting isn’t big or clever and there’s no place for it on the football pitch. Yeah right. Nothing beats a good set of footballing handbags, which is exactly what happened at Old Trafford today in 1990 when Manchester United and Arsenal got stuck into each other.

If you thought the recent bad-blood between United and the Gooners was a new thing, think again. Back in 1988 Nigel Winterburn had a few choice words for Brian McClair when he missed a penalty and the seeds were sown. On that fateful autumn day in 1990 tempers began to flare when Choccy was again involved, this time swapping studmarks with Tony Adams before Winterburn went in with another tackle and all hell broke loose. First Andres Limpar and Denis Irwin squared up, then before you knew it 21 players were brawling.

Unlike most football fights, those in attendance actually saw a few kicks and punches thrown as chaos ensued. A young Paul Ince was particularly in the mood when he threw Limpar into an advertising hoarding, obviously hoping his nickname of ‘the Guvnor’ would catch on.

Eagle-eyed readers will have seen that only 21 players took part in the dust-up. The missing man? None other than David Seaman, who was no doubt either worried about having his hair pulled or didn’t want to leave his line in case Nayim was knocking around.

When the dust settled all eyes turned on referee Keith Hackett, as a card-fest was expected, but amazingly only Limpar and Winterburn were booked. The FA were not impressed though, fining both clubs £50,000 and taking the unprecedented step of deducting Arsenal two points and Manchester United one. Both clubs got over this early-season blow pretty well, as Arsenal won the title and United the Cup Winner’s Cup.

If you thought that the FA’s punishment would have calmed down the two sides, think again. Since then, we’ve seen a fair bit of agro between the sides, such as Martin Keown jumping around in Ruud van Nustelrooy’s face after the Dutchman missed a penalty in 2003, the end of Arsenal’s Invincible’s run in 2004 that descended into the Pizzagate saga and Roy Keane defending his pal Gary Neville from Patrick Vieira in the Highbury tunnel later that season, with a retort that went along the lines of “if you like Senegal so much, why don’t you go and play for them?” but with more swearing.

See the beef below and join us tomorrow for a somewhat calmer affair, involving someone who would never get caught up in such matters.