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2) Arsenal to Manchester United – 2012/13
Arsenal and Manchester United are two teams who have battled like gladiators season after season for glory of having domestic superiority at the end of the season, especially in the Premier League era. The rivalry stems back to late nineties, 1997 to be precise, when Arsene Wenger’s revolution upset the Sir Alex Ferguson’s title winning machine by clinching the title by coming from behind after a splendid second half of the season. From then on, both the teams have been engrossed in many titanic battles.
In the 2012/13 season, Manchester United won the EPL title in a canter as they wrapped up the league in April. This was the first instance in the Premier League when the title was wrapped up in April since Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea took the league by storm in 2005/06. Sir Alex, in his last season at United, made sure that he graced the retirement on a high and that too in some style!
After comfortably sealing the league title, United travelled to North London on 28 April and Arsene Wenger confirmed that his team would abide by the rules and offer their bitter rivals a guard of honour. The highlight of the season and United’s stellar title win was majorly due to the signing of former Arsenal captain and Premier League’s Golden Boot winner, Robin van Persie.
There was a strong sense of bitterness lingering in North London after their talisman made the switch and also won the league title. Arsenal fans did not shy away from expressing their dissent as they continuously booed Van Persie. But he silenced them by earning and converting a penalty.
1) Barcelona to Real Madrid – 2007/08
Real Madrid returned to the pinnacle of Spanish football by winning the league title in thrilling fashion by pipping arch rivals FC Barcelona on a better head-to-head record in the 2006/07 season. Los Blancos took the insult a notch higher in the following season where they ran away with the league title.
Real Madrid won the league with a healthy gap of eight points over the second placed Villareal. Barcelona had a miserable season and finished third – 18 points off the leaders. But what compounded La Blaugrana’s misery was the greatest possible insult to any Catalan and that is to give Madrid a champions’ guard of honour, that too in enemy territory, at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Barca were forced to give Bernd Schuster’s Real Madrid a guard of honour in the 152nd El Clasico when both the sides faced each other in the 36th game of the season. Real entered the tie after comfortably sealing the league title the preceding week and made their rivals pay not only with a guard of honor but also with a humiliating 4-1 defeat.
Schuster ecstatically claimed that they wanted to celebrate in style as said, "We wanted to celebrate the title with our fans and play a great game and we did that," Schuster told a news conference. "The attitude of the players was superb."
