The 1997/1998 season is one which Manchester United fans tend to forget.
Aiming for a third consecutive Premier League title, United couldn’t have been in a better position to fulfil this ambition.
In the second half of that season, Alex Ferguson’s men were at one stage a whopping 16 points clear of bitter rivals and eventual champions, Arsenal.
The Manchester club, up to that point, had a good record of getting over the line when it came to Premier League title run-ins. Two seasons previously they infamously overtook Newcastle United when at one point the Magpies held a 12-point lead over their rivals.
They also kept the Toon Army at bay the following season, finishing seven points ahead as they clinched their second Premier League title in as many years.
However, United suffered their very own capitulation the following year, and this was mostly down to the players they had missing. In particular Roy Keane, who was unavailable for the majority of the season.
This is something which Ryan Giggs mentions in his column for The Daily Telegraph.
‘What happened? We had terrible injury problems to key players, including Roy Keane, Paul Scholes and myself for a while.’
Keane tore his cruciate ligament when kicking out at Leeds United’s Alf-Inge Haaland.
We all know the story at this stage and what would happen when Keane met Haaland as a Manchester City player.
However, the injury which he suffered was a huge blow to the level of on-field leadership at United and subsequently, their Premier League challenge.
Giggs recalls some of the losses that season which proved pivotal in his side failing to defend their title.
‘We were beaten home and away by Arsenal, the second of those two games at Old Trafford came later that March.
‘Suddenly the defeats started to eat away at our confidence and the kind of games we would expect to win became that bit more difficult.’
It’s impossible to say whether Keane’s availability would have changed things that season but you can’t imagine losing both games to Arsenal would have happened if Keane was on the pitch, especially at Old Trafford.
All is well that ends well however, Keane used the pain of missing out on the majority of that season as motivation for United infamous treble-winning exploits the following year, where his performances were key in United creating history.
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