Getting the score is easy these days

Despite what many in East Africa may think, Arsenal against Manchester United isn’t the fixture it once was. The rise of first Chelsea, then Manchester City, coupled with the fading threat of Arsenal as title challengers has seen to that.

Nonetheless this is still a tie that gathers huge interest across the globe. I imagine this is in part because the two teams’ rivalry for top spot in the Premiership coincided with the rise of full time football coverage on television all over the World.

But it’s also because of a history of enthralling games between the two sides. It’s easy to remember Ryan Giggs’ wonder goal in the 1999 FA Cup semi final replay or Arsenal’s title triumph sealed by Wiltord at Old Trafford in 2002, not to mention the 8-2 result earlier this season or the FA Cup Final Gunners penalty shoot out win in 2005.

21-man brawl

Matches haven’t always been remembered for footballing reasons. It all goes back to 1990. In October that year, Arsenal favourite, left back Nigel Winterburn hacked away at Manchester United defender Denis Irwin. While Winterburn lay on the floor, Irwin and striker Brian McClair kicked him.

The result: a 21-man brawl the like of which has rarely been seen.

The Football Association had to act: they deducted one point from the Red Devils and two from Arsenal – in the end this didn’t matter as Arsenal still went on to win the title.

By Arsenal’s Invincible season of 2003-04 much of the personnel may have changed, but tensions between the sides remained. Early in that campaign, Ruud van Nistelrooy’s last-minute penalty miss kept Arsenal’s unbeaten record intact. Jubilant Arsenal players, led by Martin Keown, conducting a ‘war dance’ around the Dutch striker.

A host of Arsenal players as well as Keown (Ray Parlour, Ashley Cole, Lauren, Jens Lehmann and Patrick Vieira) were charged by the FA for their misbehaviour, as were Ryan Giggs and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Sometimes there is little pleasure to be had for the neutral in watching such games, while for dedicated fans it can be 90 minutes of unbearable tension.

But this isn’t the reason I didn’t watch the recent Premiership meeting between the two at the Emirates.

Instead I was on a plane from London to Denmark and the lovely, but very cold, city of Copenhagen.

We boarded the plane at 4.00pm United Kingdom time exactly as the game a few miles away in North London was kicking off. By the time the plane landed after an hour and a half flight, the final whistle had gone.

As we came in to land, I asked one of the cabin crew if they could ask the pilots to contact traffic control for the score.

They were otherwise occupied flying the plane, but as we disembarked, I was shown the report of the game on an IPad.

It struck me what a difference a few years make. In 2003, I had also been in Copenhagen at the same time as Manchester United and Arsenal met. That time it was in a lunchtime FA Cup fifth round game. We’d taken a romantic Valentine’s Day weekend, flying the short trip from Amsterdam.

The hotel was good, but with no TV channels showing live English football. Anyway it wouldn’t have been right to spoil the mood by sitting in front of the television. We went sightseeing – in Copenhagen, recommended – and in the days before Blackberry and without a mobile phone, I only found out the result – an easy 2-0 away win for eventual cup winners Arsenal – late that night on CNN.

It’s not that long ago, but how things have changed. We live in an amazing age of information everywhere.

It’s not necessary to be at home to follow what is going on thousands of miles away on a football field. You could drive far up the Rift Valley and someone in the nearest village would let you know in an instant the latest score.

Future generations will rarely experience the hours of frustration we’ve all been through trying to find out who has won a game. Instead, they will be bombarded with facts wherever they are.

Childhood favourites

Further back in time, there was even less information and hardly any up-to-date news to be found. In 1977, I went with my parents on the long journey to a family wedding in London.

At the time, my childhood favourites Hereford United were enjoying their one and only season near the top of English football; they were in the second tier of the game.

I was at an age where I couldn’t understand why I should sit amongst a crowd of boring adults in whom I had no interest when I could be a few miles away at Craven Cottage watching Hereford playing at Fulham.

This was particularly true because the Fulham side that day included two of the greatest footballers who ever played: Bobby Moore and George Best. Even now I shudder at the thought of seeing these two, even past their prime, on a football field.

Not allowed to go to the game, I sulked (as only boys that age can do) throughout the whole wedding ceremony and the subsequent celebrations. Eventually, to pacify me, my father went in search of a public telephone booth (this was an age before mobile phones) to call the club office back in Hereford to find out what had happened.

At the time, telephone connections were unreliable; instead of getting through to the club, my father got connected to a wrong number.

Happily, the phone was answered and not only that, but the anonymous person on the other end of the phone had the result.

My father trudged the long walk back to the after wedding party, and told me the news: Hereford had lost 4-1. Sometimes, it’s better not to know the score.

When not thinking about football, Guy Maughfling (Facebook Group: “Premiership Chat”) is a director in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Advisory business in East Africa. The views expressed here are his own.