In the 1990s and 2000s, Manchester United and Arsenal were the teams to beat. It was like the Manchester City and Liverpool rivalry of Pep Guardiola vs Jurgen Klopp, but less predictable and far more fiery. Between 1996 and 2004, every Premier League title was won by one of these great rivals. Now, it's been 12 years since either of them were Champions.
It wasn't until the 2016/2017 season, the 25th Premier League season, that neither of these two clubs qualified for the Champions League, but in the past eight seasons, only once have both clubs made it into Europe's premier club competition.
Say it quietly, but Sunday's meeting at Old Trafford may be the least consequential game of this Premier League weekend. United are having an awful season, but realistically aren't in any danger of relegation, while Arsenal are comfortably clear for a Champions League spot but are a long way behind leaders Liverpool.
And yet, it's almost certain that this will be one of if not the most hotly contested game in the top flight this weekend.
Why? Because history matters.
Treble Winners to Invincibles
For all of Manchester City and Liverpool's fantastic title races over the past seven years, there has always been one predictable outcome, with Jurgen Klopp's Reds only taking one title to City's six since Pep Guardiola arrived in the Premier League.
But when it was Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United and Arsene Wenger's Arsenal, it was much harder to call.
Wenger arrived in England during the 1996/1997 season, with Manchester United defending champions, a title they would go on to retain.
What Sir Alex Ferguson perhaps didn't count on after picking up his fourth title in the first five Premier League seasons was just how great of an impact his new French rival was going to have.
The Gunners pipped Manchester United to the title by a point in 1998, scoring less goals and conceding more than the Red Devils. But Wenger had created the ultimate big game team.
For the first time in the Premier League era, a side other than Ferguson's won the league and FA Cup double, dominating the English game.
United bit back though, winning each of the next three top flight titles, with Arsenal second every single time.
Of course it was the first of these three successive titles that was the most impressive, as it was part of the first Premier League, Champions League & FA Cup treble every won by an English side, and until 2023, it was the only such achievement.
2002 brought Manchester United back down to Earth after becoming the first side to win three-straight titles, as they finished outside the top two for the first time in the Premier League era.
Arsenal won their second crown with a club-record 87 points, ten ahead of a Manchester United side who finished behind runners-up Liverpool.
The significance of this particular title however was how it was finally decided; the Gunners went to Old Trafford, the home of a United side who were three-time consecutive champions, and beat them on their own patch to take their crown away.
A year on from Sylvain Wiltord's famous winner, it looked as though the Gunners would defend the title for the first time, but a late season slip culminating in a disastrous defeat to Leeds at Highbury handed the trophy back to United.
Much like United in 1999 after losing their title however, Arsenal responded in record-shattering style after conceding to the Red Devils in 2003.
Arsene Wenger's side went the entire 2003/2004 Premier League season unbeaten, the first side to do so since Preston North End in 1888/1889.
This was the definitive end to the Arsenal-United dominance as a certain Jose Mourinho came along and guided Chelsea to back-to-back titles in 2005 and 2006.
But the titles and record are just a small part of the rivalry between these two giants of English football; what really made it a spectacle was the overwhelming extent to which they absolutely despised each other.
Fights, Penalties and Golden Boots
Like most rivalries that don't concern city rivals, the quarrels between Manchester United and Arsenal were originally centred around silverware, but after just a few editions of this fixture in the Premier League, it became so much more.
You really can take your pick in terms of classic, controversial moments.
The most physical were the battles between Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira. Both were known for leaving a foot in and both were on their best form when these sides met.
With neither side willing to let the other have the last say, there were seven red cards between 1997 and 2005.
The two most heated matches the sides contested in this era both came at Old Trafford and concerned Arsenal's Invincibles. Very early in the 49-game run, Arsenal went to Manchester and came away with a 0 - 0 draw, but the result was the last thing anyone remembered.
Patrick Vieira had been sent off very controversially after Ruud van Nistelrooy had several times provoked the Arsenal captain and gone down softly under challenges from the Frenchman.
Not that this excuses the reaction from Vieira's teammates however.
Van Nistelrooy, who had beaten Thierry Henry to the golden boot the season before, smashed a penalty into the crossbar, and the Arsenal players, led by defender Martin Keown, celebrated exuberantly in front of the Dutchman.
Ultimately, Arsenal were the winners of this particular battle, keeping their record in tact on their way to their unbeaten season, but it went the other way the following season in Manchester.
Arsene Wenger's side arrived on a 49-game unbeaten run, already seven clear of Nottingham Forest's previous record. They were defending champions and hadn't lost a league game for 18 months.
After 73 minutes of Arsenal domination, United were awarded a soft penalty for a challenge which featured very minimal contact on Wayne Rooney. Ruud van Nistelrooy converted it to put the hosts 1 - 0 up, and after a late second from Rooney, United held out for a 2 - 0 win that ended Arsenal's record.
If that wasn't controversial enough, van Nistelrooy, the scorer of the penalty, was later handed a retrospective three game ban for a challenge on Ashley Cole that referee Mike Riley had missed.
The game's drama didn't stop on the pitch however; an enormous bust-up in the tunnel led to the ridiculous Pizzagate incident, in which an Arsenal player, who we now know to have been Cesc Fabregas, hurled a slice of pizza at Sir Alex Ferguson.
As if that tunnel bust-up wasn't damaging enough for Arsenal, United came to Highbury in February and won again, this time coming from behind twice to beat the Gunners 4 - 2.
Even that wasn't it for these two rivals that season though; they met in the 2005 FA Cup Final, and after a fiery goalless draw over 120 minutes, Arsenal prevailed on penalties, and who else but Patrick Vieira could tuck home the winning penalty?
This season largely marked the end of the fiercest years of the rivalry and, much like the majority of the battles between the sides, it was closely fought. Although Manchester United won both league matches (and a League Cup quarter-final in December), Arsenal came away with the only trophy between the two as a result of their FA Cup triumph.
Changing Fortunes Diminish Rivalry
After Arsenal left Highbury for Emirates Stadium, Manchester United dominated English football. The Red Devils won the title in four of the first five seasons after the Gunners moved across North London, with Chelsea providing most of the competition to Alex Ferguson's side.
During this period, United dominated the fixture, compounding their superiority over their London rivals with an 8 - 2 mauling of Arsene Wenger's side in August 2011.
After the departure of United's greatest manager, both clubs suffered a decline. In 2017, both sides failed to qualify for the Champions League for the first time. For almost a decade between 2014 and 2022, both sides found themselves in and out of various European competitions.
Arsenal won four FA Cup titles between 2014 and 2020, while Manchester United won the Europa League in 2017 along with one EFL Cup the same season and one FA Cup the season before, but the biggest titles have been absent for both clubs for a long time.
The Modern Scope
The last three seasons have seen Arsenal become big favourites in this fixture for the first time in the Premier League era.
Last season's runners-up have won each of the last four league meetings between the sides, and although United did win on penalties at the Emirates in the FA Cup in the last meeting between the clubs, this was very much an outlier from the recent direction of the fixture.
Last season's double over the Red Devils was particularly ruthless, with the Gunners scoring twice in stoppage time at the Emirates before scoring early and then defending admirably to win 1 - 0 at Old Trafford in the reverse.
If Mikel Arteta's side do win at Old Trafford on Sunday, they will be the first side in Premier League history to win five successive league matches against Manchester United since the league re-organised in 1992.
This emphasises the gulf in class between the sides at the moment, with United languishing in the bottom half and Arsenal challenging for titles. Even though the Gunners are way behind Liverpool this time around, they pushed Manchester City to the end in each of the past two seasons and have been bitterly unlucky with injuries in 2024/2025.
Ruben Amorim is not having an easy time of it at Old Trafford and a victory over Arsenal would certainly be a welcome boost for his side, but the likelihood seems low.
Arteta's side are water-tight defensively, conceding less than a goal per game this season, and after their ruthless 7 - 1 demolition of PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League, the Gunners will be confident heading into their meeting with a United side who struggled to get a 1 - 1 draw with Real Sociedad in the Europa League.
Make no mistake, this rivalry is certainly not what it once was. Neither side have won any of the biggest prizes available to them for almost a decade, and with a gulf between them over the past couple of seasons, it's difficult for Manchester United especially to feel the heat of this once-great rivalry.
But history is history, and there are plenty who remember the very hottest of games between these sides. Nothing can change the fact that Manchester United vs Arsenal is still treble winners vs Invincibles.
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