Seeing the Invicibles

Remember The Invisibles? Yap, that Arsenal class of 2004 that thought they could celebrate their 50th unbeaten game at Old Trafford! Old Trafford?! Well, as we always say, only one set of dreams come true at the Theatre of Dreams, and that is not the dreams of visitors. This occasion was no different.

But how did Manchester United do it?


Gary Neville explains in his autobiography.

Gary appreciates the talent of The Invicibles but he believes they ran short when it came to attitude, mental and physical strength.

"They acted as though the rest of the world was meant to sit back and admire their beautiful football. Sorry, count me out. Some of us had a mission to stop them by all legitimate means."

Gary was accused of brutalizing Arsenal players and in special case he and Phil ganged up against Antonio Reyes. Gary says they did not, he knew Reyes was mentally weak and so he purposely frustrated him with hard tackles which he could not handle and was subbed at the 70th minutes. Mission accomplished.

On Phil's tackle against Reyes;

"People said we ganged up on Reyes but my brother Phil's collision with him was a nothing tackle. He got there a bit late and pushed Reyes off the ball, which wasn't hard to do."

He added that the better than thou attitude of the Invicibles was really not welcomed by Red Devils. Not just the Invicibles, but Red Devils did not entertain that kind of attitute even from one of their own;

"Henry would look at you as if to say, ‘How dare you try to to tackle me!' United have never really tolerated prima donnas. You get kicked, you get up and get on with the match. Look at how Ronaldo cut out a lot of his histrionics - that's because we told him to stop rolling on the floor."

 Apparently it did not take some rocket science maneuvers to see the Invicibles, just some pissed off, mentally and physically strong Red Devils who has had enough of the prima donnas. A penalty by Ruud van Nisterlooy (won by Rooney) and a goal from Wayne Rooney concluded Arsenal's 2 - 0 loss at Old Trafford and exposed the Invicibles. That was the end of an era, ended by yours truly, Red Soldiers.

But then, Arsenal came to the Battle of the Buffet flashing their guns for everyone to see while Red Soldiers surprised them with all kinds of weapons. Moral of the story: I love Manchester United.

Catch more of this here.