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Arsenal and Manchester United's rivalry may have faded, but Martin Keown insists they had the best battles in the Premier League era. The Gunners and the Red Devils go head-to-head for the first time this season in the Premier League on Wednesday, with the sides meeting under the lights at the Emirates. Arsenal are second in the league, nine points behind leaders Liverpool. Man United, meanwhile, are languishing in ninth, 15 points off the summit. Mikel Arteta’s side have scored 13 goals in their last three outings in all competitions, netting five in their most recent two. But with new Red Devils manager Ruben Amorim securing two wins and a draw in his first three games in charge in all competitions - including a 4-0 victory over Everton on Sunday - the Gunners shouldn’t rest on their laurels. It’s been a long time - over 16 years to be exact - since Arsenal and Man United went toe-to-toe for the Premier League title. Keown played Man United 32 times during his career, facing them the most in his career other than Liverpool (36). His three Premier League titles came in 1998, 2002 and 2004 - with Arsene Wenger’s Gunners beating Sir Alex Ferguson’s Man United to it each time. Aside from Blackburn in 1995, Arsenal were the only side to stop Man United’s monopoly in the Premier League up until 2005 when Chelsea stepped in. Keown played against some of the most iconic Man United players of the Fergie era, as well as starring alongside Arsenal’s own legends including Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira. It was a rivalry that defined an era and he built a famous foe in ex-Man United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy, recently joking he’d send him a copy of his book after his spell as interim manager at Old Trafford. Twelve years on from his retirement, Keown’s time playing in the Wenger v Ferguson derby still sticks in his mind - as well as the characters he came across. Despite his spicy history with Van Nistelrooy, Keown did get on with other Red Devils players - particularly those he linked up with with England. That includes David Beckham, who won six Premier Leagues with Man United between 1996 and 2003. That’s despite Keown kicking him a lot in games. “I think someone like David Beckham was someone who always seemed such a well-balanced, you know, aggressive on the pitch, ” he told talk SPORT. “Really, I don't think he gets quite enough credit for the quality he produced. And then off the pitch, you know, a really good lad. “Didn't seem to have any real edge to him or didn't hold anything against me anyway for kicking him on the pitch! ” Asked if he ever spoke to Man United players in the tunnel before games, he said: “I wasn't a great one for that. I always used to just be, you know, look as if I was totally uninterested, trying to save energy, trying to make it look like I was being cool. I didn't want to be aggressive. “I didn't want to use up any nervous energy. But I always enjoyed taking to the pitch, certainly with the array of players that Wenger put together in those years. “But I never really cared who was looking. “I wish now when I look back, I might have smiled occasionally. Might have had some decent pictures to look back on! ” Keown and Van Nistelrooy famously clashed in the Battle of Old Trafford in 2003. The defender was slapped with a hefty £20, 000 fine for his role in the chaos after a contentious red card for Vieira. Arsenal felt Van Nistelrooy had fooled officials with a theatrical display to get Vieira sent off. But the Dutchman - who recently took over at Leicester - isn’t the only one Keown had history with. Asked who else he didn’t like facing, he said: “I think [Teddy] Sheringham was somebody that I'd come across from a really young age. So we'd played against each other from 17, 18, when he was at Millwall as a kid. “And probably because he got on better with Tony [Adams] and seemed to just exclude me. So that's fine. “So it gave me that motivation. I respected him, of course. There's always going to be players that you get on with and that you don't get along with. “It's just having that respect for them, isn't it? ” Man United boasted some of the game’s best during the peak of their rivalry with Arsenal - so much so it’s hard for Keown to pick which players took playing the Gunners the most seriously. He said: “I spent time with the guys at the England get-togethers. You know, they were all really fiercely competitive. Paul Scholes would kick the Man United players as much as he'd kick the Arsenal players in training. “You couldn't really focus on one player because they were all so good, weren't they? So, you know, if you were going to just home in on Giggs, then Paul Scholes would probably make a run from deep. Van Nistlerooy would be the same. “They always had four strikers. Which was always tricky when you looked over to the sidelines. You know, is it going to be Dwight Yorke or [Andy] Cole or Sheringham, [Ole Gunnar] Solskjaer? “You know, most teams just had two and they had four. So, yeah, that would be your downfall if you were really homing in on one player. ” In recent years, Arsenal have been competing with Manchester City for the Premier League title. The last two seasons saw the Gunners finish as runners up to Man United’s local rivals, while the Red Devils finished in third and then eighth. Despite their rivalry fading, Keown still believes it’s the best rivalry the Premier League has seen since its inception in 1992/93. “Is there one bigger? ” he said when asked where the rivalry ranks in Premier League history. “You know, I think if you think about back then, you go back to the [Arsene] Wenger years, Manchester United, I think, had won, was it four of the first five Premier Leagues? “And suddenly this Frenchman's coming in, you know, to sort of knock their nose out of joint a little bit. What we did that season, we won 10 games on the bounce to become champions. “Manchester United were being paid out at Christmas. So that kind of created a real change. Some of the players that were brought in, then you had, you get the rivalries and the duels. "You're playing against the same players. You've got Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira, two of the finest midfield players we've ever seen up against each other. “That rivalry has kind of disappeared a little bit. “Manchester United are going through big change, but Arsenal, I think, are ahead of them with Arteta having now just done five years. It’s always a big game, that one. “Of course, it was always significant. You knew if you got something against Man United, home and away, that you had a good opportunity to be Premier League champions back in that period. ” Man United will be without Kobbie Mainoo and Lisandro Martinez for this week’s clash, with both stars picking up suspensions against Everton. Arsenal's Ben White and Takehiro Tomiyasu were already carrying injuries before the weekend, and Mikel Merino and Thomas Partey had to sit out of the 5-2 win over West Ham too. Bukayo Saka, Gabriel, Martin Odegaard and Riccardo Calafiori were all forced off in the game, too, but all appear precautionary bar Calafiori. But growing injury list or not, Arsenal will need to keep in step with Liverpool, who face Newcastle on Wednesday. “Always a big game, Arsenal welcoming Manchester United to the Emirates, ” Keown said. “I'm always going to go for an Arsenal win, maybe a 2-0 win. ” © 2024 talk SPORT Limited

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