Patrice Evra is the latest special guest to appear on the official Utd Podcast.
It’s a good listen but he is asked to talk about Paul Pogba at the very start and refuses to do so. He wants his fellow Frenchman to do the talking on the pitch and worry later about his ‘friendship’ with Graeme Souness.
Good advice and Evra knows that his comments carry weight too. The last thing he wants is to be dragged into a crossfire.
But if you thought Evra’s explosive comments were about to die down, think again!
He was asked on the podcast about the opponent he enjoyed beating the most, to which he laughed and replied: “Oh, Arsenal!
“I will tell you my philosophy. Manchester City… winning against Manchester City was like winning against a neighbour. They’re making noise, you just win and it’s okay.
“Winning against Chelsea, it was like; you’re going to win the league. Because I think Chelsea was the only team looking exactly like us. I mean like personality, characters, training, powerful, speed. I will say, Chelsea.
“Arsenal… I remember when van Persie came. He said: ‘Come on Patrice, come on, you have to motivate everyone. It’s an important game.’
“I was like, ‘Robin, don’t worry, those are my kids — we’re going to win easy’ and we won!
“You remember, I think it was after the Champions League, I made that comment and we won 3-1 at the Emirates [2009].
“We scored that great goal in counter-attack with Ji-sung Park, Rooney and Ronaldo, and the French journalists after the game were really like: ‘Oh, the result doesn’t reflect the philosophy of the game.’
“I was like: ‘Are you serious? I just feel like today was 11 men and against 11 babies.’ After that it was in the paper. ‘Patrice is calling Arsenal babies!’
“But it’s just the feeling… I respect so much this club, but it was just my feeling when I played against them — I know I’m going to win,” he added.
It’s important to realise that Evra came to United when Arsenal finished competing for league titles. They weren’t the same team that Roy Keane had endless battles against, or the side that went the entire season unbeaten.
Van Persie was caught in the middle of that mediocre mess but saw the light at the end of the tunnel and joined United before winning his first and only Premier League title, despite spending the majority of his career in England.
Should have joined earlier?
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