United’s FA Cup history with Arsenal

Manchester United and Arsenal are the best two performing clubs in FA Cup history.

The sides will do battle again in the third round on Sunday, at the Emirates Stadium, hoping to go all the way and improve on the individual records of 14 triumphs for the Gunners and 13 for the Reds, with our most recent success, of course, coming in glorious fashion against Manchester City last season.

In terms of meetings between ourselves and the north-London outfit, this is the 17th time we have clashed in the competition, but the very first occasion at this stage.

We’ve eliminated the capital side more than any other team (eight times) and the same can be said for the Gunners knocking us out the most (seven times).

We enjoy the better record, with victories (eight) in half of the games, while two of Arsenal’s wins came before the Second World War, including our 5-0 reverse at Highbury in 1937!

You just have to relive the 1999 FA Cup semi-final replay victory.

United’s biggest victory over the capital club in the FA Cup came in 2008, when Sir Alex Ferguson’s men secured a convincing 4-0 scoreline.

Current first-team coach Darren Fletcher scored twice, with Wayne Rooney and Nani also on the mark.

Arsenal have won on both occasions that we have contested the final – in 1979 and 2005.

The first one was particularly cruel as we battled back from 2-0 down, one of the scorers a future Red in Frank Stapleton, with two goals in two minutes late on. Gordon McQueen and Sammy McIlroy looked set to have forced extra-time, only for Alan Sunderland to get on the end of Liam Brady’s left-wing cross seconds later, to break United hearts.

In 2005, the Reds dominated throughout against Arsene Wenger’s men but could not get the goal we deserved, with Ruud van Nistelrooy having a rare off day when it came to finishing. Instead, Paul Scholes missed in the penalty shootout and Patrick Vieira’s final touch as an Arsenal player condemned us to a painful and undeserved defeat at the Millennium Stadium.

When it comes to semi-finals, it is United who enjoy supremacy. Famously, in 1999, a pivotal contest took place in the context of that unforgettable Treble-winning campaign.

Following a goalless draw at Villa Park, with a Roy Keane goal wrongly disallowed, the two sides reconvened for a classic match in the competition’s long and storied history. David Beckham’s first-half beauty was cancelled out by Denis Bergkamp’s leveller but the Dutchman was denied a penalty winner in the last moments of normal time when Peter Schmeichel pulled off one of his most iconic saves.

With United down to 10 men after Keane’s red card, we still came out on top in a breathless encounter when Ryan Giggs’s solo strike earned its place in the pantheon of great FA Cup goals. Of course, not only did we go on to lift the trophy but also the Premier League and Champions League.

Paul Scholes shoots down the ‘Invincibles’ in 2004.

There was another Villa Park meeting in 2004, with the Reds very much underdogs against the ‘Invincibles’ but knocking the Londoners out with a Scholes effort, from Giggs’s assist, before overcoming Millwall in the final in Cardiff.

It was a typically feisty and frenetic affair and a triumph that felt hugely important in the context of where both clubs were at the time.

And the same venue in the Midlands was the scene of a brilliant 2-1 success in 1983, as superb strikes by Bryan Robson and Norman Whiteside, in the second half, overturned Tony Woodcock’s opener. Ron Atkinson’s side also knocked the Gunners out of the same stage of the League Cup that term and won the FA Cup with a 4-0 replay belting of Brighton & Hove Albion, on the back of a 2-2 draw at Wembley.

Fabio helped make it a day to remember at Old Trafford in 2011.

There have been other notable victories for the Reds over the years.

Narrow triumphs, both 1-0, in the fifties (1951) and sixties (1962) were achieved at Old Trafford, with Stan Pearson and Maurice Setters the two matchwinners.

A much-changed side from Sir Alex Ferguson still won 2-0 in 2011, thanks to goals from Fabio and Rooney, while our most recent clash in the competition came six years ago. Alexis Sanchez returned to the Emirates Stadium to haunt his former team, with Jesse Lingard and Anthony Martial also on the scoresheet in a superb 3-1 success.

It is our only previous FA Cup tie at the Gunners’ present home.

We had to endure a similar scenario involving an ex-player, in 2015, when Academy graduate Danny Welbeck bagged the winner in a 2-1 away victory at Old Trafford, after Rooney had equalised Nacho Monreal’s effort.

Two other notable losses to the Gunners probably had more repercussions than the mere 90 minutes. In 1988, Brian McClair pulled a goal back to make it 2-1 but then sent a late penalty over the bar, passing up the chance to force a replay. The reaction of Arsenal full-back Nigel Winterburn sowed the seeds for bad relations between the teams that spilled over in an on-field brawl in 1990, resulting in punishments for both clubs.

In 2003, Edu and Sylvain Wiltord secured a 2-0 win at the Theatre of Dreams, with Giggs guilty of a bad miss for the hosts. However, all of the post-match focus centred on Beckham, who was hit by a flying boot kicked in the dressing room in anger by manager Ferguson, upset with the cup exit.

We wait to see what this next instalment has in store for everybody on Sunday, but it is unlikely to be dull!

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