Rivalry would be a light way of describing the relationship between Manchester United and Arsenal, and Rio Ferdinand played in some huge clashes between the two sides during his playing career.
For many years in the Premier League, the two went to war every single time that they were on the pitch together, giving fans some of the league’s greatest ever battles.
In recent years the two have fallen from grace, but no love has been lost between the two clubs and their fanbases.
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But speaking on his podcast, FIVE, Rio Ferdinand has admitted he currently thinks Arsenal are ahead of Manchester United in their rebuild.
The Manchester United legend was asked by presenter Joel Beya, “Are Arsenal ahead of Man United in their rebuilding process?”
Ferdinand took some time to think about his answer, then begrudgingly said “yes”. The lie detector machine confirmed that he was in fact telling the truth.
After some brief mockery from Beya, Ferdinand reaffirmed his belief stating “Nah, they are, they are, we’ve got a new manager, it’s obvious.
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“You know what I mean, we’ve got a new manager who has to try to implement all of his ideas, we’re gonna be behind you in that sense.
Beya then said he believes United have been behind for a long time. “I believe that you lot have been behind for many many seasons.
“Probably only when José (Mourinho) came for two seasons, that’s the only time where I reckon Man United were clearly ahead of Arsenal.”
Ferdinand responded “And Van Gaal”, then repeated the statement again. Beya then quizzed the former Champions League winner by asking if it was because United won an FA Cup.
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He then asked “Really, really were you?” to which Ferdinand answered: “Yeah, but both the clubs have been in a state, so we’re fighting over nothing really.”
Beya then joked: “So now it’s nothing, when we’re beating you it’s nothing?” To which the former centre-half said, “Nah nah nah but I’m saying in terms of where we’re both at we’re both shambolic compared to history.”
Beya asked Ferdinand if there is a respect there when he sees former Arsenal players and Ferdinand responded, “Yeah because we were like great teams at the time, you know what I mean.
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“We were going to battle at Highbury with like Viera, like big players man Thierry, Bergkamp, do you know what I mean? Solid players man, Ashley Cole left back, like, Robert Pires, great players man.
“Great team, hard team to play against and obviously we were coming with what we had as well, do you know what I mean and it was always just great games man, I loved it. I loved playing against Arsenal then.”
Manchester United’s attempts to rebuild under Erik ten Hag officially kicks off on Sunday (7 August) against Brighton & Hove Albion at Old Trafford.
They play against Arsenal at Old Trafford on Matchday six in early September, before facing them at the Emirates on Matchday 21 towards the end of January.
Topics: Manchester United, Arsenal, Rio Ferdinand, Louis Van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Erik Ten Hag, Mikel Arteta
Yusuf Haq