Arsenal’s FA Cup quarter-final away to Sheffield United on Sunday will have to be something special to surpass the epic last-four encounter the two shared in 2003.
That’s no-small claim since the Gunners and Blades have enjoyed quite a rivalry in the cup. The series is responsible for some of the more infamous matches in the competition’s history.
Nwankwo Kanu forgetting the code of conduct on his debut in English football in 1999 and Marc Overmars’ disputed winner led to Arsene Wenger and David Dein graciously offering to void the result at Highbury and instead host a replay. Thankfully, the Gunners would win the amended fifth-round tie by the same 2-1 scoreline.
Tension was just as nerve-shredding six years later when the Blades took Wenger’s post-Invincibles side to a replay. Arsenal needed rare heroics from Manuel Almunia, yes him, to win a penalty shootout 4-2 at Bramall Lane and progress.
Almunia’s two saves from the spot still couldn’t compare to David Seaman’s miracle two years prior. Seaman could see the big 40 coming over the horizon, but he was still first choice for a squad chasing a second-straight Premier League and FA Cup double.
The league title was already beginning to slip from Wenger’s grasp by the time his reshuffled team prepared to face the Blades at Old Trafford. It marked the third year running Arsenal played a cup semi-final at the home of bitter rivals Manchester United, who just happened to be chasing them down in the league.
Wenger’s side wowed the country playing champagne football at the start of the 2002/03 campaign. Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira, Sylvain Wiltord and Kanu were creating patterns close to art.
Then along came a spider. Well, not so much a spider as a tubby Scouse lad named Rooney. His late winner for Everton in October 2002 not only announced 16-year-old Rooney as a generational talent, it also ended a 30-game unbeaten run that helped Arsenal claim two trophies the previous season.
Momentum stalled post the Rooney-quake, and a United side powered by Arsenal nemesis Ruud van Nistelrooy set about reeling in Henry and Co. Shited went top after Paul Scholes scored a hat-trick in a 6-2 walloping of Newcastle at St James’ Park the day before Arsenal’s semi-final duty.
Wenger and Alex Ferguson both had one eye on the upcoming decider at Highbury, set for three days later.
Arsenal had lost an eight-point lead, but the cup run provided magic moments. Dennis Bergkamp hit his 100th goal for the club when Oxford were beaten in the third round, before Farnborough Town got to bring their fans to Highbury after the fourth-round tie was moved to north London amid financial concerns for the minnows.
The non-league side’s supporters saw their team score at the home of the champions, courtesy of the superbly named Rocky Baptiste. It was a nice moment, but Arsenal’s skeleton crew still found the net five times to ensure a fifth-round trip to Old Trafford.
Fergie played a full-strength side, but Wenger started Wiltord and Francis Jeffers in place of Henry and Dennis Bergkamp, while Ray Parlour played ahead of Freddie Ljungberg.
Astonishingly, Arsenal swatted United aside with goals from Edu and Wiltord. Pires dispensed passes with ease and class, Edu ran the middle of the park and Ryan Giggs missed the ultimate sitter.
An already remarkable cup run got better during a titanic quarter-final against Chelsea. A 2-2 draw at Highbury prompted a replay at the Bridge, where Wenger put Stuart Taylor in goal and again rested Henry, Bergkamp and Ljungberg.
Fortunately, Vieira had one of those nights when he played as if he’d been gifted by the Gods to alleviate their boredom and humiliate mere mortals. Vieira created two goals before Lauren’s untidy shot squirmed in to seal progress and send me into a state of out-of-body delight.
A place in a third final in a row seemed like a formality against Neil Warnock’s Blades, who were chasing a playoff spot in English football’s second tier. United proved to be no mere pushovers, however.
It didn’t help Arsenal were walking wounded before the semi-final. Vieira’s knee was heavily taped for the game, while Seaman had only recently returned after a hamstring problem.
Pires wasn’t involved, so Ljungberg moved left and Parlour played right wing. Centrally, Wenger still preferred Edu over Gilberto Silva, and Jeffers and Wiltord again got the nod up top.
In all honesty, the game proved to be a rather drab affair, punctuated only by briefly memorable, and in one case, immortal moments.
The Blades stifled Arsenal with a 4-3-3 formation featuring wide forwards who pressed full-backs Ashley Cole and Lauren. Peter Ndlovu and Steve Kabba prevented Cole and Lauren from offering Arsenal width, forcing the play central where Edu and Vieira were outnumbered by Michael Brown, John Curtis and Michael Tonge.
Brown was the revelation of United’s season, a terrier with a keen eye for goal. He kept the Blades on the front foot early, with Robert Page heading wide at the near post, before a desperate header from Lauren denied lower-league veteran Wayne Allison a tap-in at the back stick.
Arsenal needed some luck — a quality Wenger only ever seemed to enjoy in this competition — and got it for Ljungberg’s goal 10 minutes before the break.
Irritating ref Graham Poll was the unlikely apple of Wenger’s eye after playing a starring role in the move. First, Poll missed two apparent fouls when Edu barged Brown and Allison was left flattened by Sol Campbell.
Arsenal broke, but Wiltord’s layoff was headed straight for Tonge until the midfielder was blocked off by Poll. Ljungberg kept the move going and finished it after Wiltord touched Jeffers’ cross onto the post.
Wiltord followed up but saw his second effort blocked, before the ball rolled Ljungberg’s way. His shot went in off the crossbar, a suitably scrappy goal to decide a scrappy game.
Freddie loved the business end of the FA Cup, scoring goals in both the ’01 and ’02 finals. He never had the artistry of Pires, the vision of Bergkamp, nor Henry’s awesome physical power, but the Swede’s industry and nerve were invaluable in knockout football.
Arsenal had the lead, and Warnock wanted to eviscerate Poll. Instead the Blades channelled their anger to put Wenger’s double-double chasers through the wringer in the second half.
The season came unglued for good when Vieira was scythed down by Brown barely minutes after the restart. Arsenal’s captain fantastic was obviously hobbled, but he attempted to soldier on before eventually making way for Silva.
United began overrunning the bewildered Brazilians in the Arsenal engine room. Brown shot wide from inside the box before Curtis fired over the bar as chances mounted for the Blades.
Meanwhile, Edu and Gilberto endured a tonnage of verbal detritus from Campbell for giving the ball away and not protecting the defence.
Wenger brought Henry on for a typically disappointing Jeffers, but Arsenal were still missing Bergkamp’s craft. The more significant substitution came on 78 minutes when Warnock called for Paul Peschisolido and inadvertently set the stage for one of the greatest moments in Arsenal and FA Cup folklore.
It happened with less than seven minutes remaining. Page met a corner with a header in the box, and Karl Asaba skewed his volley. Seaman had already started moving toward Asaba, so he was slightly ahead of the play when Peschisolido tried to turn the ball in off his shoulder.
Ol’ Safe Hands defied the mechanics of the human body and father time to… second thoughts, fuck it. No words needed:
THE save was so holy crapola-inducing, so bollocks-tinglingly awesome, it achieved instant iconic status.
Seaman was the hero, but the performance of Phil Jagielka is also worth remembering, after Warnock’s utility man moved to centre-back and played like a boss. He crunched into Cole in the 62nd minute and kept pace with Henry in stoppage time before taking the ball off the striker’s toe with the goal at his mercy.
Jagielka’s formidable display rates as a what-if moment for Wenger, who would regularly be linked with the defender later in his career. If a deal had materialised, Jagielka would have fortified the soft underbelly of teams featuring Cesc Fabregas, Robin van Persie and Samir Nasri and helped them win the silverware their talents merited.
Pre-Emirates transition Arsenal were strong enough to retain the cup when a Pires goal beat Southampton in Cardiff. It was Seaman’s last game for the club and the perfect capper to a special run.
For me, 2003 shades 2017 as the best, and certainly most romantic, of the seven cup successes Wenger achieved. Sadly this particular triumph is too often remembered as poor consolation for relinquishing the league.
Vieira hobbled off early during the showdown against United, when a Van Nistelrooy solo special and a red card for Campbell effectively gave Ferguson another title.
Arsenal’s captain didn’t play again during the campaign, missing the 2-2 draw with Bolton and 3-2 defeat to Leeds that put Wenger’s men out of their misery. Of all the reasons why Arsenal let the title go in ’03, Vieira’s untimely injury rates highest on the list.
Those setbacks created the resolve for the Invincibles and made retaining the cup a worthy achievement that deserves to be remembered more fondly. At least Seaman’s miracle lives on to remind us all.
The 49 Steps 