The footballing rivalry between Arsenal and Manchester United saw a new page on Sunday when former United manager Sir Alex Ferguson gave a commemorative trophy to Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger, who was managing the side for the final time at Old Trafford. Wenger, 68, announced last week that he will no longer be staying on as Arsenal manager after the end of this season. In his final match at the Theatre of Dreams as the Gunners boss, the United fans gathered in numbers to give a standing ovation to the French manager.
But the gesture from the Red Devils did not end there. Ferguson, who previously led United to 13 English Premier League titles, and was one of the leading figures of United’s rivalry with Arsenal in the yesteryears, himself came down to the ground to honour Wenger with a trophy before the start of the match.
The text on the commemorative trophy said, “Presented to Arsene Wenger by Sir Alex Ferguson CBE and Jose Mourinho on behalf of Manchester United Football club, in recognition of his service to and achievements at Arsenal Football Club.”
The gesture was appreciated by Wenger who praised Manchester United for being “classy”. “I am thankful to Manchester United because they had a nice gesture. It is the first time I get a trophy before a game. It is very classy from them,” he said.
In spite of putting together an extremely young starting XI, Arsenal impressed with their performance against the Jose Mourinho’s side but a header from Marouane Fellaini in the injury time, took the game away from them as United registered a 2-1 victory. Earlier it was Paul Pogba who opened the scoring for United in the first half, but Henrikh Mkhitaryan found an equaliser in the 51st minute to take the match to a 1-1 stalemate, before Fellaini’s header restored United’s lead.
With the win, United sealed a top-four position in EPL and confirmed a spot in the next year’s Champions League tournament.