Manchester United suffered a major setback in their title challenge as they lost their first game of the season on Saturday to Premier League relegation strugglers Wolves.
The defeat saw a 29 game unbeaten run for United come to an end, and next up for them is a tricky home game against rivals Manchester City, and a player who knows all about long unbeaten runs coming to an end.
Kolo Toure, who left the Gunners for City at the start of last season, was part of the Invincibles side that won the league without losing in 2003/04, and also played in the 2-0 defeat to Manchester United that saw Arsenal’s famous 49 game unbeaten end in heartbreaking style.
Toure still feels the pain of that controversial defeat, and sees next weekend’s game as an ideal opportunity for revenge on United, as he knows their confidence will be affected by their streak finishing.
“When you’re on a good run like that and you lose, everything becomes harder,” he said. “It shakes your confidence. Maybe that can happen to them.
“It was difficult to lose that game [against United in 2004].
“The circumstances were hard because they got a penalty, which we didn’t think was a penalty. For us, it was really difficult to lose to United. I think it’s a great chance for me to get my revenge.”
Toure has always seen Sir Alex Ferguson’s team as rivals since his time at Arsenal, and even more so now that he faces them in the Manchester derby, but he has his eye on the league title as well.
He added: “I have spent most of my career in England battling United, first at Arsenal, now at City. They are always at the top. Now we have new players, we are capable of fighting against them and that has been shown with our results against them over the last 18 months.”
Toure would certainly be doing his old side Arsenal a favour with a City victory next weekend.
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