Man Utd’s record against the Big Six since Sir Alex Ferguson retired
Manchester United have not enjoyed much success since Sir Alex Ferguson stepped down after the 2012-13 season – but how have they fared against their fellow Big Six rivals?
United’s haul of trophies under Ferguson was often fuelled by crucial victories against their direct rivals – think Arsenal in 1999, Chelsea in 2008 or countless triumphs against Liverpool.
But the aura of invincibility slipped almost immediately. David Moyes’ short tenure at Old Trafford was marked by crushing defeats against Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City.
While his next two successors, Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho, enjoyed some success in big matches, United were unable to consistently achieve results in the most important games.
Paradoxically, the inexperienced Ole Gunnar Solskjaer achieved a number of successes against United’s big rivals – with counter-attacking tactics often flummoxing the likes of Pep Guardiola and Frank Lampard.
But the 2021-22 season has been scarred by some humiliating reverses against their biggest rivals. United were hammered 5-0 and 4-0 by Liverpool – the biggest aggregate score between the two clubs – and also conceded six in two defeats against City.
Despite this, United did the double over Tottenham and beat Arsenal 3-2 in a thrilling fixture in December 2021. Their record against the two north London sides has not been terrible since 2013.
Interestingly, their record against Chelsea is almost completely balanced. United have scored and conceded the same number of goals (22) against the 2017 champions, with an extremely high number of draws between the pair.
United haven’t won the Premier League, or looked like challenging for the title, since Ferguson stepped down and that’s partly because of their inability to consistently get the better of their Big Six rivals – but is their record actually that bad?
We’ve crunched the numbers to discover United’s record against their Big Six rivals since Ferguson’s retirement in the summer of 2013.
Liverpool
Played: 22
Won: 7
Drawn: 7
Lost: 8
Points Per Game: 1.27
Goals for: 21
Goals against: 32
Goals scored per game: 0.95
Goals against per game: 1.45
Manchester City
Played: 22
Won: 8
Drawn: 3
Lost: 11
Points Per Game: 1.09
Goals for: 22
Goals against: 33
Goals scored per game: 1.0
Goals against per game: 1.5
READ: Rating the £328m Man Utd have spent on the defence since Ferguson
Chelsea
Played: 22
Won: 6
Drawn: 9
Lost: 7
Points Per Game: 1.23
Goals for: 22
Goals against: 22
Goals scored per game: 1.0
Goals against per game: 1.0
First day of the season United vs Chelsea.
Dan James scores on is debut. 🇾🇪pic.twitter.com/5PZc6VbWu0
— . (@MUHQNews) April 1, 2020
Arsenal
Played: 19
Won: 7
Drawn: 6
Lost: 6
Points Per Game: 1.42
Goals for: 23
Goals against: 25
Goals scored per game: 1.21
Goals against per game: 1.32
Tottenham
Played: 19
Won: 10
Drawn: 3
Lost: 6
Points Per Game: 1.74
Goals for: 26
Goals against: 26
Goals scored per game: 1.37
Goals against per game: 1.37
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