On Saturday Arsenal travel to Old Trafford looking for their first league win at Manchester United’s home in a decade. In recent years, even as all else crumbled around the ears of whoever United had in charge, one constant comfort blanket they have clung to is the visit of the Gunners.
In the early 1980s, though, roles were reversed. Those years represented a fairly grim time for Arsenal: they didn’t win a major trophy between 1979-1987, although they did get to the FA Cup final and the Cup Winners’ Cup final in 1980. Their league campaigns were similarly barren, achieving a few top-four finishes (today regarded as something like an achievement but back then nothing to jump up and down about), and they were rarely serious title contenders. The football wasn’t great either: after a particularly stodgy 0-0 draw with Nottingham Forest in 1983, the then manager, Terry Neill, commented that he could “only feel shame after a game like that”.
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