September 21 - Keown Gets Ruud

“I rang my wife after the game. She’s usually very supportive, but she said: ‘I think you’ve gone and done it now…’”

Today in 2003 Mrs Martin Keown was not impressed by her husband’s behaviour during a typical blood-and-thunder game between Arsenal and Manchester United at Old Trafford.

As we’ve told you before, it’s rare for an Arsenal-United clash to go by without fighting, red cards or even food fights and this early 2003/04 season would prove to be no exception.
The match was a tense affair, with the Gunners ditching their usual classy pass-the-ball-into-the-net style of play, in favour of a more organised, solid gameplan as they put on a dogged display that frustrated their hosts.

With solid, gritty play however, usually come cards. Referee Steve Bennett showed no less than eight yellows that, with Patrick Vieira receiving his second on 80 minutes after some histrionics from Ruud van Nistelrooy. Ruud was in the thick of it that day: after an afternoon of winding up the Arsenal defence with his play-acting, he was booked in the aftermath of Vieira’s red card for squaring up with Jens Lehmann, who was proving he could stand the pressure better than his banking namesakes by keeping United at bay.

With tensions boiling over the fuse was lit on injury time, when Bennett gave United a penalty after Keown’s innocuous challenge on Diego Forlan. Despite having missed his last two spot kicks, Ruud stepped up but thwacked it against the bar. Half the Arsenal team, lead by an extremely intense Keown gathered around the Dutchman, shoving him and getting all up in his grill over the miss.

Keown would later say: “You react as you see fit every day of your life, and it’s the same on the football field… we felt cheated because we didn’t think it was a penalty.

“I’d paid a few fines to the FA on behalf of Mr Van Nistelrooy,” he added. “I don’t feel particularly comfortable among United fans even now… I don’t think I’d go to Old Trafford to watch a game.”

The game finished goalless and Arsenal would go on to complete the season undefeated as they romped to the Premier League title.

See Keown getting up close and personal to Van Nistelrooy in the frankly, very funny footage below and also see what else was going on today here. Just like the credit crunch, we won’t go away, so join us tomorrow for one of the greatest comebacks ever.

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