It was 40 years ago - Arsenal and Manchester United meet again.

It was 40 years ago- Arsenal and Manchester United meet again.

Tomorrow those two footballing gladiators meet again at the North London amphitheatre that is the Emirates Stadium gleaming shields clashing and no love lost in their eyes. There will be, doubtlessly, bloodthirsty antagonism, a heartfelt desire to thrash the living daylights out of each other and an almost an insatiable hunger to lay claim to that crucial fourth place in the Premier League which will certainly ensure Champions League football at either the Emirates or Old Trafford.

For Arsenal and Manchester United this is the battle royale, the ultimate confrontation where pride and prestige collide head on with a kind of regional, tribal, parochial meeting of mind and matter, where London and Manchester battle it out for city supremacy. Of course there will be fire and brimstone, an intriguing combination of skill and aggression, sound and fury, brawn and belligerence while not forgetting a tasty helping of subtlety and finesse. There always has been and long may it continue.

This year of course is the 40th anniversary of that wonderfully engrossing, deliciously brilliant, nerve shredding and most transcendently glorious 1979 FA Cup Final between these two titans of the game. It was 40 years ago that British politics witnessed its most ground shaking and seminal moments when Margaret Thatcher became the first woman Prime Minister ever to step inside 10 Downing Street. At roughly the same time both Arsenal and Manchester United were marching out of the old Wembley Stadium to a typically rapturous reception from their huge hardcore of supporters.

Against this feverish backdrop punk rock would reach its highest zenith and people wearing safety pins in their noses and moody leather jackets would manufacture some of the loudest, most anarchic and noisiest music ever heard anywhere. It was a time of cynicism and depression, disenchantment and disillusion, of youthful rebellion and a refusal to accept the status quo. The Jam squared up to the Clash and the Sex Pistols were just rudely outraged, determined to make themselves heard and remembered.

But back at Wembley Stadium Arsenal, under the intelligent man management of Terry Neill and Don Howe as his assistant came face to face with a Manchester United side led by the quietly philosophical Dave Sexton. The year before Arsenal had been unexpectedly humbled by Roger Osborne's winning goal for Ipswich Town and were still probably licking their wounds from that FA Cup Final.

In 1979 over an hour of the Arsenal -Manchester United contest had been dominated by an Arsenal side who were simply swarming all over the red shirts like wasps in a bush. The back four of skipper Martin Buchan, Jimmy Nicholl, Arthur Albiston and the towering Gordon Mcqueen were so penned back into their own penalty area that at times it looked as though they'd been trapped at the bottom of a well. Sammy Mcilroy, a tough and tigerish Irishman, was accompanied by the equally as competitive and persistent Lou Macari but both men seemed to be gasping for breath on a warm afternoon at Wembley.

Early on Arsenal, sparked into life by the exotically cultured and irresistible midfield maestro Liam Brady, the classy sophistication of Graham Rix and the hard working David Price, were carving, tearing open and ripping to shreds a rapidly back pedalling United. When Brian Talbot gave Arsenal the lead in the opening stages, United were beginning to look each other in some confusion. With two minutes to go to half time Frank Stapleton increased Arsenal's lead and United looked like lost souls in the wilderness.

During the second half United spent most of the first twenty minutes of the half wandering, dawdling and dithering in the late spring sun, searching for any way back into a game that looked completely beyond them. Then, with a sudden surge of adrenaline that must have come as a shock to United's system they neatly worked the ball through a forest of Arsenal defenders and Sammy Mcilroy squeezed the ball past Arsenal keeper Pat Jennings, the ball trickling towards the corner of the net in freakish slow motion.

With the match now heading towards its tantalising closing stages United were now throwing men forward with reckless abandon. A last gasp free kick was floated into the Arsenal penalty area where the Scottish defensive rock of Gordon Mcqueen headed the ball firmly into the net for an equaliser that had seemed so highly unlikely given the extenuating circumstances.

And then straight from the kick off, rather like some dramatic Shakespearean climax, Arsenal, sensing their Macbeth moment, went straight to the heart of a now collapsing United defence. Brady, who'd enjoyed perhaps one of his finest 90 minutes in an Arsenal shirt, wriggled his way down the left flank with a devious shake of the hips, his low centre of gravity eating up the ground before eventually a low cross to the far post found the afro haired Alan Sunderland, who, with an ecstatic grin on his face, clipped the ball past United keeper Gary Bailey.

Now both Arsenal and United face each other again in a game that once again assumes an almost traditional significance. The recent memories of  once fiery skipper Roy Keane exchanging heated verbal banter with Patrick Vieira in the old Highbury tunnel, Arsenal's Martin Keown taunting Ruud Van Nistelrooy after the Dutchman had missed a vital penalty for Manchester United, will continue to add much needed spice and piquancy to this most eagerly anticipated Premier League fixture.

The meeting of Unai Emery for Arsenal and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer for United has an unusual feel about it if only because both men are completely unfamiliar with the crackling atmosphere and high voltage ambience of the fixture. United will be buoyed by the most sensational of winning runs and Arsenal may be slightly bruised by their Europa League defeat by Rennes in France. Fasten your seat belt. There is another gripping epic in the air.