sport news That semi-final goal against Arsenal... Ryan Giggs on the treble 20 years on

At Ryan Giggs’s house there are no visible pointers to a two-decade career at Manchester United, nothing to remind him of the things he did.

‘If you did that Through the Keyhole programme at my house you wouldn’t know I had played,’ he smiled. ‘It’s all in my head instead, in my memories.’

Now, as we approach the final furlong of another football season, it’s time for those memories to be jogged.

In May, it will be two decades since Giggs and United put indelible ticks in three very big boxes at the same time. Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup. The Treble. Never done before and never done since.

Reflecting from a distance of 20 years on epic victories over Arsenal in the FA Cup and Bayern Munich at the Nou Camp seems strange. Giggs does not look 20 years older, for example. He is 45 but carries no extra weight, the only nod to middle age being a few grey flecks and a stiffness in his neck that he stretches as he talks.

‘I am really proud of the Treble now,’ he nodded last week. ‘I understood what it meant at the time because it was so hard to do. It was such a roller coaster. But I can reflect on it properly now.

‘In London a cabbie will say, “You ruined my life that night at Villa Park”. United fans tell me my goal that night was the best they ever saw. Arsenal fans say they haven’t forgiven me.’

If it still hurts in north London, one can only imagine how Giggs, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Teddy Sheringham and the rest are remembered in Bavaria. 

One of the most memorable weeks of Giggs’s remarkable career was shaped by two interventions from Sir Alex Ferguson. The first one, on April 7 1999, was an old- fashioned rollicking as United trailed 1-0 at half-time of their Champions League semi-final first leg at home to Juventus.

Ferguson tore into Giggs and David Beckham, claiming they weren’t working hard enough. In the last minute of the game, Giggs scored the equaliser.

Five days later, as United prepared for what proved to be a seismic FA Cup semi-final replay against Arsenal at Villa Park, Giggs found himself in Ferguson’s office.

‘He told me I wasn’t playing how he wanted,’ said Giggs. ‘The boss said he wanted me to remember what I was good at, that I had drifted away from that.

‘He was saying, “I need THIS Ryan Giggs, not THAT Ryan Giggs”. I got the hump about it of course. I always did. But I listened. He just wanted me to run at players, be instinctive.’

The upshot was one of the greatest goals in FA Cup history, Giggs slicing a 60-yard gash in the Arsenal defence to score the winner of a titanic game in extra time. A substitute that night, he hadn’t even played very well. ‘I kept giving the ball away,’ he said. ‘So I went back to instinct. I ran. At the time I thought the goal was OK. Only later did I realise how far out I was when I got the ball.

‘Roy Keane was sitting in the dressing room when I got in. He said, “Here he is, the f****** saviour”. The other lads were celebrating but because it was the winner, not because it was a worldie.’

Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal side had won the Double the previous season and started 1998-99 by beating United 3-0 in the Charity Shield and the Premier League.

‘One trophy, never mind three, seemed a very long way away at that point,’ recalled Giggs. ‘We were under pressure.’

United’s rivalry with Arsenal ran deep. Deeper perhaps than we even realised. ‘I didn’t like Arsenal,’ Giggs said without blinking. ‘I didn’t like Vieira ’cos he was dirty and got away with murder. I didn’t like Petit because he had long hair. I didn’t like Bergkamp.

‘I didn’t like Pires even though when you meet him now he’s actually dead nice. I wouldn’t even look at them, didn’t know them and didn’t want to. I wouldn’t allow myself to rate any of them.

‘Berkgamp? Nah, I told myself he wasn’t as good as Eric Cantona. I wasn’t really that kind of person. It wasn’t really me. But you had to get that in your head, that intense dislike. It was pure motivation. But deep down we knew. They were top drawer and that rivalry was everything to us. Deeper even than Liverpool at that time.’

United won the Premier League by a point from Arsenal, having not lost a single game in any competition since December 19.

But their relationship with their London rivals was at its most visceral that night in Birmingham in the Cup. Keane described his battle with Petit and Vieira as ‘a war’ and was sent off. Bergkamp missed a penalty in the last minute of normal time. Yet afterwards Tony Adams and Lee Dixon waited by the United dressing room to offer congratulations.

‘I don’t know if I could have done that,’ said Giggs. ‘I really don’t...’

The game was ultimately won by goals from Beckham and Giggs. This was fitting given that Beckham had also been called in for a little gee-up by his manager the previous week. Great man-management or lucky coincidence?

‘It’s hard to say but he regularly picked me and Becks out for a rollicking,’ said Giggs. ‘I think it was because he knew we wouldn’t sulk for long and he would get a reaction on the pitch.

‘But he was making an example of us too, definitely. We always got it more often than the rest. One pre-season in America he went for me in front of everyone. I was fuming and pulled him later.

‘He said it was a ploy because he knew the younger players would know that if he could have a go at me then nobody was safe. At times I would moan to the lads about it but when I got on the pitch it probably made me play better. Sir Alex knew what he was doing with me and Becks, pressing our buttons. Was he wrong? Course he wasn’t.’ 

United’s return to European eminence had been a slow-burn. For some — Keane among them — the legacy of the 1968 European Cup-winning team weighed heavily. For others, like Cantona, the wait for

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