Arsenal Can Gain From Pain of Seeing United Win Title, Says Arsène Wenger

Sir Alex Ferguson is not a manager to miss a psychological trick. In May 2005, when Chelsea arrived at Old Trafford as the newly crowned Premier League champions, the Manchester United manager asked his players to form a guard of honor and applaud them on to the field.

Ferguson's gesture was big-hearted but he also wanted his players to feel chastened. If the expression on the United defender Gary Neville's face was anything to go by, that end was achieved. Ferguson wanted his players to take the galling experience away with them over the summer and return for the ­following season with even greater ­hunger to wrest the championship from west London.

There will be no pre-match guard at Old Trafford tomorrow as United still need a point to guarantee their record-equaling 18th league title but the Arsenal manager, Arsène Wenger, is alive to similar motivational possibilities. If his team cannot prevent what many see as the inevitable United result, they would have to endure the spectacle of their rivals lifting the Premier League trophy to a backdrop of pyrotechnics, streamers and partying supporters. Wenger, though, would want his players to suck it all up.

"Of course it can inspire the players," he said. "These players will win and want to win but you have to accept as well that Man United at the moment is the best team. They have watched us lifting the trophy as well. It is part of sport and England is famous in sport for the fair play that they have shown. The rugby teams have created this idea.

"Man United have been better than us without a doubt the whole season. Liverpool win the day before and United come out and they believe that they will win. You have to say, 'Yes, you are the best'. There is no shame to say that."

The boot was on the other foot in 2002. Arsenal travelled to Old Trafford for the penultimate game of the Premier League season and won 1–0, courtesy of Sylvain Wiltord's goal, and it was United who had to witness their title celebrations. The difference then was that both teams were in contention for the trophy. This time, Arsenal trail United by 18 points and are certain to finish in fourth. Theirs has been a trying campaign, perhaps epitomised by Emmanuel Adebayor's ­struggles. The striker will travel to Old Trafford with ­serious doubts over his future. Wenger, however, noted a key similarity between his class of 2002 and Ferguson's current vintage.

"We'd played the final of the FA Cup four days before [they beat Chelsea 2-0] and we were suffering," he said. "But that game at Old Trafford reminds me that when a team has a momentum, it's just a fraction of belief. In the worst moments of that game when United dominated us, you just knew that we would win 1–0. It always comes back to how important that fraction of belief is when a team is on the way up."

Ferguson also endured George Graham's Arsenal celebrating the old first ­division title in front of him and his players at Highbury in 1991. Arsenal had sewn up the trophy before United's visit and, after a 3–1 victory that day, they were presented with it. That was particularly aggravating for Ferguson as, earlier in the season, United and Arsenal had ­contested the original Battle of Old Trafford, in which punches rather than pizza slices were thrown, and the Football Association docked points, one from United, two from Arsenal.

The days of mutual loathing between the clubs appear distant, with Wenger and Ferguson having glossed over their personal differences, and Wenger's magnanimity, even his compassion, shone through when he reflected on the moment that he felt turned the title race in United's favor.

"I saw them against Aston Villa [at Old Trafford on 5 April] and you felt nearly sorry for them," he said, a comment that would have been unthinkable a few years ago. "They won the game in the end but they were closer to lose 3–1 or 4–1 than to make 2–2 and then win 3–2. They gained the momentum at the right time.

"We miss something, I don't deny that, because we were 1–0 up against Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final and we lost so there is that and, secondly, there is to say 'OK, Man United was the better team'. That is the beauty of sport. We have not to be scared to say someone is better."

Wenger, though, would still love to poop the party tomorrow.