Wengers last trip to Old Trafford… by Konstantin Mitov
Well, here it comes. The end of an Era surely cannot come at a more iconic place than the one that saw the good the bad and the ugly from Arsene. This game, more than any other epitomizes Wenger’s career at Arsenal.
Our last league win at Old Trafford came in 2006 when Fabregas danced between a few United players capitalizing on a Ronaldo mistake, before Adebayor slipped the ball past the keeper.
It seems like forever since that day. What has happened over there in Manchester after that includes an 8/2 defeat, and even losing 3-2 when United played the kids. Now they have Mourinho. Another person who has a defining presence in Wenger’s period at our club.
And now the roles are reversed. We head to old Trafford with the Europa League as our last chance to save the season, just like United visited the Emirates last season and this got Wenger his only league win over Jose, but now it’s harder for us.
History, league position, priorities and form are all against Arsene and it’s kind of sad. He won’t be able to make his last great battle against United memorable. He is fighting it alone too.
The fans gradually left Arsene. Moving from ‘one Arsene Wenger’ to the situation we are in now isn’t something that happens overnight. It’s the result of constant failure to compete for major trophies, embarrassing defeats, bad transfer markets and so on.
On Thursday Arsenal looked like a proper football club. We were united, the atmosphere was phenomenal, the stars aligned with the red card in our favor, the players put in the necessary effort, but our own mistakes cost us again.
But what was a major disappointment was the way Wenger stormed down the tunnel. It was his last European game at home and he didn’t come to thank the fans who gave everything to go home disappointed again.
Now as Wenger heads to Manchester for one last time, he needs to summon the spirits of the good old days like when Wiltord won us the league there.
While no trophy sits on the end of this game, a new Dawn begins for the gunners soon and how it does pretty much sits on the next two games.
Konstantin