By Nicholas Ojo-Awo
For football fans, especially those following the top European leagues, this weekend is going to be nothing short of a block buster.
Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund vs Bayern Munich, Inter Milan vs AC Milan, Wolfsburg vs Shalke 04 but the greatest pick of the litter should be Manchester United vs Arsenal.
Take a pause to give credence to the early years of the English premier league when these two teams were perennial winners or runners up, from the great teams of Sir Alex Ferguson embodied by the historic treble win of 1999 and those of the legendary ‘Professor’ and his invincibles of 2004.
Those were giddy days.
At present both teams no longer hold the league in tenacious grasps between them at various periods, they sojourn into the wilderness and have left fans with bitter taste particularly at the seasons end.
Arsenal during their stadium building, stars selling, penny pinching days and more recently, the post-Ferguson era which has seen United miss out of the lucrative Champions League in two of the last three seasons accompanied by a new trigger-happy coach hiring and fitting policy.
This weekend though, none of that is going to matter.
What will be on show is a classic; North vs South tussle for supremacy, Mourinho vs Wenger, and some of the league’s best players going head to head; Ozil vs Pogba, Ibrahimovic vs Sanchez and there’s room for upcoming stars like Iwobi and Rashford.
The three points at stake should be worth all the sweat and blood that used to be reminiscent of the days when Keane and Viera used to grace these derbies.
The Fergie times and the Wenger zipper/water bottle tantrums might not match the still smoldering feud between Mourinho and Wenger which reached its crescendo when Wenger shoved Mourinho on the touch lines during the latter’s second stint at Chelsea.
But both managers have learnt to keep a straight face for the cameras and let their football do the talking when they meet.
Pseudo tiki-taka will have to come up against the man who showed the world how to defend and counter against it, the most beautiful football side on their day vs graft and counter thrust.
On Saturday, the land that gave the world football in its modern form will serve up two of its greatest proponents, managed by the special one and the professor all for three points in the race for the league trophy come season end.
