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Could Mikel Arteta do an Alex Ferguson and become one of the greatest managers of all time? I have looked in their time at Manchester United and Arsenal to see if there are any gleanings to be made in their respective careers. One big difference is that Ferguson was very successful at Aberdeen before being lured to United and Arteta was a rookie. A boyish Mikel Arteta at Rangers But first let’s look at them as players and, surprisingly, they both had two seasons at Rangers. Ferguson, as a forward, scored 25 times in 41 games (Rangers regularly trounced smaller teams) and Arteta had 68 games and 14 goals as a midfielder. Pretty even, I would reckon. Arteta won the Scottish league and league cup with Rangers and Ferguson won nothing in a fallow time for Rangers. Celtic were riding high under Jock Stein at that time. Arteta wins as a player Arteta won 5 trophies as a player whereas Ferguson only ever won 2 Scottish second division titles. Arteta played for Arsenal, PSG, Everton, Real Sociedad, and started out at Barcelona, although he never played for the senior side. Aside from Ferguson’s 2 years at Rangers, he only ever played for small sides. Arteta played 427 times with 62 goals and Ferguson played 317 times and scored 171 goals. It is fair to say that Arteta had the far better playing career. Of course, that doesn’t mean that that gives any advantage to Arteta as a manager. And a young Alex Ferguson at Rangers Many top managers were not great players but Ferguson was a good goalscorer and probably should have been recognized more for his talent. Denis Law , Alan Gilzean, Bobby Lennox, and other greats stood in his way for Scotland. It happens, your time coincides with great players in your position. And the same happened to Arteta with Spain. Do I really need to list the incredible Spanish midfielders that stood in Arteta’s way? Just in case you know nothing about football – Iniesta, Xavi, Alonso, David Silva, Busquets, even our own Cesc Fabregas and others made sure Arteta couldn’t squeeze out one cap despite being a regular in the youth sides. Early Arteta management vs Ferguson But ok, we really want to talk about management. And here I see many similarities. Ferguson was noted for dumping players and Arteta has done the same, getting rid of Arsenal’s star names early on. Wenger, by contrast, had little trouble with players. Arteta beats Chelsea in his first year to win the FA Cup Let’s look at Ferguson’s first year at Utd in 1986/7. He came in mid-season in November and they finished 11th. Arteta came in December 2019/20 and they finished 8th but he did beat Chelsea in the FA Cup to record his first trophy and still only real one. So, one nil to Mikel. In 1987/88 Ferguson came second and Utd were looking good. Arteta in 2020/21 still only got 8th and the Charity Shield but this one goes to Ferguson. 1-1 after 2 seasons. In 1988/89, Ferguson struggled to build on 2nd and ended up 11th. Arteta in 2021/22 finished 5th. No question it is Arteta’s year. 2-1 to Arteta. Ferguson’s miracle year In 1989/90, Ferguson has his worst league season. They finish 13th and all season the fans are screaming at him to go. But they win the FA Cup! Ferguson has given Utd their first trophy since 1985’s FA Cup. It saves his job. Arteta though brings his team in 2022/23 right up the table and only for key injuries at the end, they probably would have had their first league title since the Invincibles. I am going to give that marginally to Arteta as 13th in the league is poor. 3-1 to Arteta. Alex Ferguson saves his job at Wembley in 1990 Finally, 1990/91 and Man Utd win the European Cup-Winners Cup. They also make the League Cup final. Only 6th in the league, though. Arteta has his best season so far in 2023/4, pushing Man City all the way to the last game but still finishing 2nd. 89 points is Arsenal’s second best ever season, only beaten by the Invincibles 90. I don’t believe I am being unfair in giving this also to Arteta making it 4-1 to Arteta. Arteta has always been up I feel that, by Arteta always showing improvement, whereas Ferguson went up and down, the first few seasons are advantage Arteta. There were similarities in the opponents. Ferguson had the incredible Liverpool team to contend with and also George Graham’s Arsenal who won many trophies around this time. Arteta also had Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool and the fantastic Manchester City team of Pep Guardiola to try and get in front of. So, can Arteta kick on and eclipse Ferguson? Ferguson had the advantage that Man Utd were always the richest club in England but Arteta may have a different advantage. The Kroenke’s seem to have a nous for sporting finance. They create success wherever they go. They try to invest wisely. This sense of when and how to spend money could make a big difference in competing with Man City and the mega rich Premier League teams. It is not how much you spend as how you spend it that matters. The Kroenke’s haven’t gone too far wrong thus far. How tough is dominance going to be? The young players we have, plus what seems to be emerging from the academy, could push Arteta to the top and stay there. City, without Guardiola, and with their money worries, may decline. But still, Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea, Aston Villa, Newcastle and maybe even the Spuds should still provide a tough challenge for dominance. Arteta before his first match at Arsenal Ferguson was a top manager before Man Utd. He toppled the 2 kings of Scotland, Celtic and Rangers and won European trophies with Aberdeen. With Utd he went on an extraordinary run that culminated in him winning more trophies than any other manager. He deserves his place among the greats. Arteta out, like Ferguson out? Arteta, like Ferguson in his early years, has his detractors. To my mind, that criticism is undeserved. Ferguson had plenty of money to spend and brought in lots of top players only to see the team still struggle to win. Arteta’s buying seems far better with very few duds emerging. Arsenal are not the richest team in the Premier League and may never be in Arteta’s time. Alex Ferguson in his first season at United Ferguson had fans screaming at him to go, and the newspapers marvelling at why he wasn’t sacked. Arteta, has had his criticism also but he doesn’t need a miracle to stay on. The FA Cup, in a bad year for Ferguson, was his miracle. The Utd board must thank the footballing gods every day that they never panicked. The great years took a long time in coming, but come they did. Is our greatest time coming? We are looking at Arteta and we don’t know, just as the Utd board didn’t, whether Ferguson could deliver. I believe a gut instinct told them this was their man. I have the same gut instinct about Arteta. He will come good in a spectacular way if given the chance, even with a bad season or two. Supposing we finish somewhere near where we are now in the league, should it be bye bye Mikel? Does he need a trophy to save him? Look again at the Ferguson finishes delineated in his first seasons. We may be on the cusp of our greatest ever era and I believe we should not throw it away even if this season and next go wrong. Keeping the faith with Arteta may well be the smartest thing we have ever done.

The big boys stand up to the bullies Just recently I watched a chat between Gary Neville and Thierry Henry over the famous Ruud Van Nistelrooy penalty miss and the aftermath with especially Martin Keown getting in the Dutchman’s face, and Neville wondered why Arsenal were so fired up. Henry responded that United were very physical that day and all the time. The crucial thing about that game was that United failed to beat Arsenal at home allowing Arsenal to remain unbeaten for the season. Roy Keane loved winding Patrick Vieira up To put it into perspective, Man Utd were easily Arsenal’s biggest rivals at that time. If Arsenal didn’t win the league, Utd did, simple as that. From Arsene Wenger’s first full season in charge in 1997/98 when he won the double until the Invincible season in 2003/2004, that’s what happened, 8 seasons and 2 teams locked together. That never happened before in English football and probably won’t happen again. What that intense physical rivalry did, though, was create the phenomenon that is the Premier league. It certainly looked like hate The two biggest hatreds were Ferguson and Wenger, and Vieira and Keane where the battles seemed non stop. The media loved it, stoking it up at every opportunity. The Red cards, Yellow cards, the wild tackles, the screaming in faces, the insults, the intimidation even in the tunnels, and a pizza being thrown by little Cesc Fabregas. Of the 2 teams, though, only Roy Keane and Martin Keown could conjure up that eyes popping, veins protruding, pure anger of a face that would send the Incredible Hulk running for cover. It was a violent circus with both sides only caring about one thing, beating the other. Scream louder, Martin, he can't hear you So, I decided to take a look at all matches from the time of Wenger to the Invincible season up to losing that tag at, where else, Old Trafford, and instead look at the card count for each match and see who were the winners there. I decided one goal for a yellow and 3 for a red. Now I should emphasise that there was a very strong belief at the time that Ferguson intimidated officials so much that Utd got treated leniently. Certainly before I went into checking this I can say I felt Utd were the most physical of the two, but that could be my Arsenal bias. Key: I will put Arsenal first every time whether home or away. Every match is Premier league except where stated. Arsene kept the intensity high All the matches And so the first match was in November 1996 at Old Trafford. Utd won 1-0 but we won 5-1 on cards with no reds. 5-1 Then February 1997 at home 2-1 Utd, and their first double over us. But we got the double on cards at 4-2 with no reds. 4-2 Then Nov 1997 at home 3-2 to us but a draw on cards 2-2. 2-2 Then March 1998 away and we did the double with one nil to the Arsenal and 3-2 on cards. 3-2 1998 Charity Shield and we hammered them 3-0 but they beat us on cards. 2-3 1998 September at home we again won 3-0 but lost on cards as Roy Keane got yellow but Nicky Butt got the first red of the sequence to give them 4 to our 2. 2-4 February 1999 away and 1-1 and a draw on both cards and goals. 2-2 April 1999 away FA cup 0-0 but we get our first red with Nelson Vivas to give us 4-2. 4-2 April 1999 again in the return at home and they beat us 2-1 and the snarling Roy Keane captures his first red card to give them 2-6 on cards. 2-6 The Charity Shield in 1999 and we won 2-1 but they got 2-3 on cards. 2-3 Shortly after we played them at home and were beaten 2-1 but they managed 1-4 on cards. 1-4 January 2000 at Old Trafford and a tame 1-1 with a gentleman’s game of only one card for Gille Grimandi. 1-0 October 2000 at Highbury and one nil to the Arsenal but Man Utd beating us at cards 2-3. 2-3 February 2001 Old Trafford and a horror show at 6-1 Utd. No cards though. 0-0 November 2001 League cup home and revenge at 4-0 but poor John Halls came on as sub and got a red to give us a 5-1 on cards. 5-1 November 2001 home and 3-1 this time but they beat us 2-3 on cards. 2-3 May 2002 and we beat them 1-0 at Old Trafford to secure the title but they won 2-4 on cards. 2-4 December 2002 Old Trafford and 2-0 to the Mancs but 2-1 to us on cards. 2-1 February 2003 FA cup Old Trafford 2-0 to us but 1-3 on cards. 1-3 April 2003 Highbury 2-2 but 3-2 on cards as Sol Campbell got sent off. 3-2 Charity Shield 2003 1-1 but Francis Jeffers got sent off for us giving us 5-3 on cards. 5-3 Old Trafford September 2003 our Invincible year and a feisty 0-0 match saw Patrick Vieira get sent off to give us 5-4 on cards. 5-4 March 2004 Highbury sees a 1-1 draw for both goals and cards. 1-1 April 2004 Villa Park FA cup semi-final and 1-0 Utd but we won 4-1 on cards. 4-1 And I will finish the sequence on our next match against them as they beat us 2-0 at Old Trafford in October 2004 to end our unbeaten spell in a match where we won the cards at 3-2. 3-2 We were the real bullies? I stopped it there as our time as Manchester United’s biggest rival was over. We haven’t won the league since. The money boys took over. One surprising aspect in all this is how few red cards there were. 4 to us and 2 to them. Alex Ferguson always had the refs in his sights So 59 card goals to the Red Devils and us? The mighty Arsenal? 67 putting us clearly in the lead as the dirtiest team in the sequence. 26 matches and 126 card goals equals almost 5 cards per game. I think that emphasizes the physical aspects to the contests. It always draws in the fans. The Premier league became the world’s Premier league, thanks, in large part, to the emergence of Arsenal as Ferguson’s first strong challengers. The battles on and off pitch were mesmerizing viewing for the punters and nowhere else could match. It is still the most fearsome rivalry in Premier league and First division history. Keane and Vieira never really made up although, perhaps surprisingly, Wenger and Ferguson did. They were the best of their time and loved snarling at each other. Up for the fight But come on, how many neutrals would feel that Arsenal were the dirtiest team, really? I suspect not many. Alex Ferguson did have a fearsome cachet that worked in his team’s favour. Refs were intimidated and it was widely believed that the intimidation worked. Ferguson always believed that any margin that he could get in his favour, he would make sure they did. My card analysis seems to backup that belief but we do have to remember one thing, Arsenal were a big strong team at the time. We had height everywhere, and we were certainly bigger than Man Utd. Wenger moved to smaller, less physical players when this team ran its course as did football fashion. Roy Keane - the most frightening face in football I can’t truly say whether we deserved this title during this period as I doubt if there was a more physically intimidating player than Mister Keane in all of the Premier league history. But he kept himself on the pitch for this fixture only going once at 74 minutes all the way back in 1999. He was probably afraid that Arsenal would kick poor Utd to pieces without him. And Fabregas didn’t throw the pizza at him. The only thing I can truly say with certainty is that rivalry defined the Premier league, had an intensity that I doubt if we will ever see again, and brought us to where we are now in football.