Neville reveals the two Arsenal players he used to ‘wind up’

Joe Williams
Thierry Henry Gary Neville Man Utd Arsenal

Gary Neville would try to “wind up” Thierry Henry and Robert Pires whenever Manchester United faced Arsenal to try and “influence them”.

Arsenal won the Premier League title in 2001-02 and 2003-04 when Henry and Pires were in their prime with Man Utd finishing third in both seasons.

The Red Devils were also extremely successful around that period too, getting their hands on the title in 2000-01 and 2002-03  and the two clubs enjoyed many great clashes.


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Former Man Utd captain Neville claims that he and his team-mates would try and “wind up” Henry and Pires in an attempt to “take their minds off the game”.

“I would try and wind up other players if I could and get an influence over them,” Neville told Sky Sports.

“When you’re playing against Robert Pires and Thierry Henry for Arsenal, we would try and wind them up and do things that would influence them.

Neville added: “We would try to take their minds off the game and niggle at them. I don’t think I could get wound up too much but I got played once.

“I got sent off in a Manchester derby for putting my head towards Steve McManaman. But when you look at the replays there was was a Liverpool thing going on because it was McManaman, [Joey] Barton and [Robbie] Fowler all going at me. I definitely got played that game but it was a bit of a one-off I think.”

 

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