Advertisement League of Ireland Horse Racing TV Listings GAA Fixtures The Video Review Behind the Lines Sportswriters discuss their careers and the work that inspires them. Rugby Weekly Extra Dive into all the news and analysis 3 times a week The Football Family Weekly insights from the week’s big talking points Advertisement More Stories Roy Keane and Gary Neville (right) have been frequent critics of the current Man United team.Alamy Stock Photo Bruno Fernandes, Roy Keane and the ghosts of Man United's past Today’s underwhelming clash against Arsenal was another reminder of how far the Red Devils have fallen. 8.31pm, 9 Mar 2025 Share options Paul Fennessy CELEBRATED IRISH novelist James Joyce once wrote “history is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake,” and he might as well have been referring to the present-day Man United squad. Any time the Red Devils play Arsenal in the Premier League, there are the inevitable pre-game highlights packages. It is 20 years since that famous tunnel clash involving Roy Keane, Gary Neville and Patrick Vieira. And it seems like a fair estimation that Sky have aired at least 20 retrospective video packages of the incident since then. Today was no exception, as Keane and Neville were asked to recollect this incident for the umpteenth time as part of the station’s build-up to the match. It was not the only time this fixture between the two teams that once dominated English football caught fire. The Cesc Fabregas-Alex Ferguson pizza gate incident and the Ruud van Nistelrooy-Martin Keown spat are two other occasions that spring to mind. TV companies like to perenially remind viewers of these incidents, as a means of hyping up the forthcoming meeting of the two teams, playing into the fixture’s illustrious and occasionally ignominious history. But these highlight packages often have the unfortunate effect of reminding fans how starkly the present-day clash fails to live up to its perceived glorious past. The lack of world-class attackers in today’s game was one obvious contrast to the sides’ respective heydays. United started the afternoon with Joshua Zirkzee as the lone striker. The Netherlands international has scored three times in 28 Premier League appearances. On the bench was Rasmus Højlund, the €70 million (potentially rising to €80 million) forward who has failed to score in his last 20 appearances. Advertisement Meanwhile, Arsenal’s injury-hit squad had to settle on a makeshift forward line of 17-year-old Ethan Nwaneri, Leandro Trossard and Mikel Merino, even though the latter is more accustomed to playing as a midfielder. From a combined 66 Premier League appearances this season, the Gunners trio have registered 11 goals. The fact that one of their high-profile summer signings, Raheem Sterling, was left on the bench even amid an injury crisis seems like an admittance that the move has gone badly awry. It was no major surprise then that the first half in particular was largely a damp squib, as both sides invariably lacked cutting edge. Once arguably the most ferocious fixture in England football at times had all the intensity of an end-of-season friendly. You could partially excuse Arsenal for their lacklustre showing in a supposedly big game. They look like a team that know the title race is all over — the Gunners are now 15 points adrift of leaders Liverpool with a game in hand — and they have missed a chance to win the Premier League despite their usual main rivals Man City capitulating. Admittedly, they have had very bad luck with injuries in attack, with the likes of Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus all unavailable. But mediocrity has been the norm at Old Trafford for quite some time. When they won their first Premier League title under Alex Ferguson in 1993, it ended a 26-year wait to lift English football’s biggest trophy. At the time, it felt astonishing that a club as big as United had to endure such a dramatic drought. Yet the present incarnation are nearly halfway towards emulating their less venerated predecessors. Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes leaves the pitch after the game.Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo Assuming they don’t win the Premier League next season, it will be 13 years since Man United last won the title. It took the Red Devils more than a quarter of a century to emulate the Matt Busby glory years. It feels like it could be longer before they fully escape from the post-Alex Ferguson wilderness. A club as rich as United are bound to have the odd anomalous success, such as last year’s FA Cup triumph, but the chaotic way the club has been run increases the likelihood that such moments will only be fleeting. Already, Ruben Amorim’s men have lost 12 times this season — only Spurs and the bottom four have suffered more defeats, and they remain below Ange Postecoglou’s men in the table. Sacking Erik ten Hag, having awarded him a new contract in the summer, was supposed to have solved the problem. Instead, the pressure has only intensified and the performances, for the most part, have gotten worse. One of the rare moments of quality in today’s game was produced by Bruno Fernandes, with his brilliant free-kick sparing his side from yet another loss, and the 30-year-old almost won them the game with a great chance missed in second-half stoppage time. The former Porto star is regarded by some critics as United’s only world-class player, who would ostensibly be capable of getting into any other side in the Premier League. Yet last month, he received stinging criticism from former captain and club legend Roy Keane. The Corkonian said he was a “talented player” but “leadership is action” and that Fernandes is “not a fighter”. The Man United star has two goals from his last three appearances since that criticism and seven from 27 overall in the top flight this season. But for all their efforts, it still feels like they are fighting a losing battle against their legendary predecessors. Fernandes is a more purely talented footballer than Keane but he doesn’t dominate games in the same way as the ex-Ireland international and seems like his antithesis as a captain and personality. He feels like a metaphor for this era, capable of moments of brilliance but without the type of resilience that drove the club to glory for so many years when the Irishman was skipper. At times, therefore, it feels like United’s primary opponent is not a rival team but the inescapable ghosts of their past and the impossible expectations they have set. 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