Former Arsenal hero Ray Parlour does not expect Manchester United to emulate the Gunners’ achievement of an entire season unbeaten.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s side are 21 games into the Premier League season and are yet to lose a match, with an overall unbeaten run in the league stretching back to April last year.
Parlour was part of the famous Arsenal side that won the title unbeaten in the 2003/04 season, and believes that team was better than the current United squad.
He said: “When Arsenal went unbeaten for the whole of the 2003-04 Premier League season, I really believed it would be a feat never to be repeated in my lifetime. And I still do.
“Manchester United have a chance to emulate our Invincibles. They have gone 20 games without defeat in the league, so are more than halfway there. But I expect them to lose at some stage because this is such a hard division and twists and turns are inevitable.
“Comparing the Arsenal of 2003-04 with the United of today, both are excellent, experienced sides, but I think we had the better team.
“We had a bit more flair and Robert Pires’s goals from midfield. Up front, I’d take Dennis Bergkamp ahead of Dimitar Berbatov, and Thierry Henry scored 30 league goals that campaign, whereas Wayne Rooney is yet to find form.”
The former midfielder did concede, however, that an unbeaten season in today’s Premier League would arguably be a bigger achievement than when Arsenal did it, as he believes the division to be more even and competitive now.
He said: “Avoiding defeat this season in particular, when the smaller teams are playing very well and others, such as Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur, are so strong, would be an even bigger achievement than ours.”
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