Andreas Pereira loves Manchester ‘even when it rains’ as he aims to end Man Utd dry spell
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FOR more than a decade they turned the Premier League into an elite members club.
Never mind the hype of it being the toughest title in Europe to win — in reality there were only two sides ever in the hunt.
As the Prem fixtures were announced each year, only two games REALLY mattered when it came to deciding who would be crowned champions.
When did Manchester United and Arsenal meet? Anything else was an appetiser.
For five of the six seasons from 1997-98 to 2002-03 they filled the first two slots.
And the cast of stars. Roy Keane against Patrick Vieira, Martin Keown against Ruud van Nistelrooy.
For United it was Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Peter Schmeichel, Eric Cantona.
For Arsenal Dennis Bergkamp, Ian Wright, Thierry Henry, Tony Adams.
Pick an all-time Premier League XI and the bulk of that line-up would be ex-United or Gunners stars.
And tomorrow these two giants meet for the first time this season. Only on this occasion there will be no talk of title challenges.
Those days are long gone.
It is incredible to think that just ten years ago they faced off in a Champions League quarter-final.
Yet when they kick-off at Old Trafford the best either can realistically hope for is a Europa League slot.
Nowadays this is a game more likely to determine who finishes best of the rest.
Given the state of both these one-time Premier League titans, even that may be pushing it.
There is no doubt most of this United team would have been lucky to get a bit-part role under Sir Alex Ferguson.
Indeed, there are plenty who rate the squad as the worst at Old Trafford in the Premier League era.
Everywhere you look they are queuing up to put the boot in on United, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and his stumbling stars.
But if the noise outside Old Trafford is deafening, inside the walls of their Carrington training base the mood could not be calmer.
Of course they are not happy at a start which goes down as stuttering at best.
But a crisis? Far from it.
Young midfielder Andreas Pereira is one of those to take definite strides forward under Solskjaer — his FIFTH manager in five loan-spattered years at the club.
If you are a Man United player you have to play everything to win
Pereira on playing for United
And the Belgian-born Brazil international says ignoring the armchair critics and pundits is just part and parcel of being at one of world football’s biggest clubs.
Pereira, 23, admitted: “We are used to that and we know we have to shut out the other noise. Everyone wants to talk about us because we are such a big club.
“I never want to accept losing games and I don’t want to lose games.
“I am used to winning them because this is United and we are doing a lot of things right.
“When I came through it was about winning trophies and we are doing everything we can to get close to that again.
“If you are a Man United player you have to play everything to win — it’s the biggest club in the world.”
The criticism ratcheted up a notch after last week’s 2-0 loss at West Ham and a 1-1 draw with Rochdale at home, before United edged through that Carabao Cup tie on penalties.
And Pereira said: “If we get a scoreline like we did at West Ham, when we should’ve done better, we know it’s normal.
“People will always talk about this club but we are Man United and we have to deal with that — so we will pick ourselves up.
“That’s the aim we have — to get back to the top and put the club where it belongs.”
There are those who will insist words are cheap, especially when the results are doing little to back them up.
But this is not a United being rebuilt on the back of simply throwing cash at the problem. It has been as much about returning to the old values of developing from within.
Pereira, Marcus Rashford, Jesse Lingard, Axel Tuanzebe, Scott McTominay and Mason Greenwood have all come through the academy system.
And for all they spent big on £85million defensive leader Harry Maguire, Daniel James was a signing for the future who is already delivering now.
That belief in youth is the key reason why Pereira was so keen to sign a new four-year deal in July, despite interest from Spain in particular.
He added: “The manager has shown a lot of faith in the young players and I am very proud of being one of them.
“I want to carry on repaying that by nailing down a spot.
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“Jose Mourinho gave me a chance and Ole has shown a lot of faith in me over the last six months of last season and it was important for me to sign here because he is here.
“I love this club, I’ve been here since I was 16. It’s like my house, I love Manchester — even the rainy weather. I want to be here for many years.”
Repaying that faith by hitting the winner against Arsenal would be a start.
It might not spark a title charge, but it would do for now.
