Man Utd: Patrice Evra’s stories about Arsenal will be tough for their fans to hear

Patrice Evra didn’t have a particularly high opinion of Arsenal during his eight-year spell with Manchester United.

Evra was at Old Trafford between 2006-2014, during which Arsenal became less of a force under Arsene Wenger.

By contrast, United won five Premier League titles during Evra’s eight-and-a-half seasons with the Red Devils.

Prior to Evra’s arrival at Man Utd, Arsenal were widely regarded as one of Europe’s best teams.

Just two years earlier, the Gunners’ legendary Invincibles side went the entire 2003-04 season without suffering a single league defeat.

But Arsenal’s move to the Emirates Stadium coincided with a long decline in terms of the club’s success on the pitch.

Eighteen years have now passed since Arsenal last lifted the Premier League trophy.

Speaking on a TV show in Ghana this week, Evra described Arsenal as his “babies” and revealed how one of their players asked to swap shirts with him before half-time.

The former left-back also revealed that Sir Alex Ferguson’s team talks against the Gunners lasted no more than two minutes on occasions.

“When you play against Arsenal, it means you’re playing against your babies,” the Frenchman said. “When you play against Manchester City, you win against your noisy neighbours. When you play against Liverpool, you win against your enemy. When you play against Chelsea, it means you’re going to win the league because Chelsea were the most similar team at the time to United.”

The interviewer said: “Arsenal your babies?”

Evra replied: “Thierry Henry is my brother but I always felt it was really easy when I was playing against Arsenal.

“I won’t mention names but after 35 minutes my opponent he was like: ‘Mr Evra, can we swap shirts?’ – because I was going too hard on him.