Arsenal aren’t generally known as a club that constantly start brawls, fights and riots, but that just makes the occasions where things do kick off all the more memorable.
Arsenal players are generally more likely to come off the pitch with an injury than a red card, and the fans will more often leave the stadium early to catch the last train than to wait outside the away end for a fight. However, let’s have a look at five times when that wasn’t the case:
Patrick Vieira and Roy Keane
To this day, Patrick Vieira is still the player with the joint-most red cards in Premier League history, with eight in the competition. Roy Keane isn’t far behind though, with seven of his own. Unsurprisingly, clashes between the two players were a regular fixture of matches between Manchester United and Arsenal for a number of years.
The tension between the two also spilt into their interactions off the pitch, as emphasised in the famous Highbury tunnel bust-up in 2005.
According to Gary Neville, the fight started with Vieira shouting “Neville, Neville… You’re not going to kick our players out on this pitch today!”
Roy Keane overheard and started having a go at the Frenchman, and Vieira responded by squirting his water bottle in Keane’s direction. After that, it all kicked off, with shouting and swearing and the referee having to hold the Manchester United man back. All this before the game had even begun!
Click ‘Next’ for more Arsenal brawls, fights and riots
League Cup final 2007
Encounters between Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger were always lively, but there’s one particular clash which stands out when it comes to ill-discipline: The League Cup final in 2007.
With the scores level, the first major incident of physicality came about when John Terry was kicked in the face by Abou Diaby. Terry had to leave the pitch to seek medical attention, but as the kick was deemed unintentional, Diaby avoided punishment.
After Didier Drogba put Chelsea ahead, though, everything kicked off. A fight started between many Arsenal and Chelsea players, which saw Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor sent off for Arsenal, John Obi Mikel sent off for Chelsea, both teams fined £100,000, and Emmanuel Eboue retrospectively banned for three matches after punching Wayne Bridge.
Arsene Wenger was found guilty of improper conduct and charged £2,500 for comments about the Assistant Referee, and Cesc Fabregas was pretty lucky to escape any further action, among others. Fabregas and Frank Lampard picked up yellow cards for their roles in the fracas.
Click ‘Next’ for more Arsenal brawls, fights and riots
Martin Keown and Ruud van Nistelrooy
Patrick Vieira and Roy Keane were far from the only Manchester United-Arsenal pair to have a falling out as the two clubs challenged for the Premier League title every year in the late 90s and early 2000s. The other most memorable clash was between Martin Keown and United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy in the 2003/04 ‘Invincibles’ season.
It was actually an incident involving Vieira that started everything off. With Arsenal travelling to Old Trafford hoping to stay unbeaten, their chances took a knock after the Frenchman kicked out at the United man. Though his boot was probably a foot away from making contact, the midfielder was sent off anyway.
After that, Keown gave away a very soft United penalty with minutes to go, which van Nistelrooy promptly missed. The Arsenal defender ran over to taunt the striker, hitting him on the head with his arm and sparking a fight after the final whistle. Arsene Wenger said afterwards that van Nistelrooy was always “looking for provocation and diving”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4CZgblO65o
Click ‘Next’ for more Arsenal brawls, fights and riots
UEFA Cup Final Riots
In a darker turn of events off the pitch, Arsenal fans became involved in a series of riots in Copenhagen, around the UEFA Cup final in 2000.
It all started when a bar fight broke out on the morning of the match, which resulted in an Arsenal fan being stabbed. Later on, Galatasaray fans occupied City Hall Square before heading out to bars searching for Arsenal fans.
Then, those Galatasaray fans were attacked by British hooligan firms looking for revenge for the killing of two Leeds United fans by Galatasaray supporters a month earlier.
In total, there were 4 stabbings, 19 injuries and 60 arrests. 15 of those arrested were banned from attending Euro 2000, and the 19 British fans arrested were forbidden from returning to Denmark. Arsenal also banned 37 people from Highbury as a result of the riots. Hopefully, we won’t see similar scenes again in the future.