Louis van Gaal has a proud boast. Wayne Rooney has a determination to change the least impressive part of his record. Arsene Wenger has a chance to make history.
Manchester United and Arsenal are pitted in direct confrontation for not just a semi-final spot, but the opportunity to be officially the most successful club in FA Cup history.
And yet, given the primacy of the Premier League, all that may seem of secondary importance in the story of a season.
United host Arsenal on Monday night. They do so again in the penultimate week of the league campaign, on May 16, in a match that may become a winner-takes-all shoot-out for a place in the Uefa Champions League.
Securing a top-four finish is Wenger’s annual achievement and Van Gaal’s prime target.
“Our goal is to reach, in our first year together, a place in the Champions League,” Van Gaal said.
Wenger has long been mocked for suggesting finishing in fourth place is like winning a trophy.
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The Dutchman likes to say that he has won silverware in his first season in charge of each of his previous clubs. It isn’t quite true — he endured a wait at AZ Alkmaar — but he is entitled to call himself an instant success at Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
His garlanded predecessor Sir Alex Ferguson’s first trophy at Old Trafford came in the FA Cup, three and a half years after his appointment, but by the end of his reign, the Scot tended to reflect how long it had been since United last won the oldest trophy.
The wait has gone on and Rooney, who joined in 2004, three months after Millwall were beaten at the Millennium Stadium, is still unable to call himself an FA Cup winner.
Darren Fletcher’s recent departure robbed United of the last survivor of the 2004 triumph. Rooney’s sole final came in the 2005 defeat to Arsenal.
When Wenger ended a nine-year wait for silverware at Wembley Stadium last May, it was with Arsenal’s 11th FA Cup, drawing them level with United at the top of the leaderboard.
Wenger's personal haul of five puts him only one behind George Ramsay, whose half-dozen wins make him the competition's most decorated manager.
Wenger and Van Gaal’s CVs are notable for their success. Neither’s season is a triumph — yet — and neither’s campaign has featured too many landmark wins.
Van Gaal’s most high-profile victory came against Wenger at the Emirates Stadium, but it owed more to the brilliance of David de Gea and Arsenal’s self-destructive streak than United’s excellence.
Arsenal’s highlight came in Manchester, with January’s 2-0 victory at the Etihad Stadium. They displayed a blend of tactical and footballing prowess that they have rarely married on the major stages in recent years.
Their record against Manchester City improved; against United it is awful. They are approaching the fourth anniversary of their last win and have not triumphed at Old Trafford since 2006.
Arsenal’s task, once again, is to prove they do not have an inferiority complex in such fixtures. United’s is to entertain and to attack because, while a solitary point separates them in the league standings, Arsenal have played much better football.
Danny Welbeck has offered more graft than craft and may not start, but his first return to Old Trafford since his September sale offers a subplot.
Van Gaal compared the Mancunian’s goal return unfavourably with those of Robin van Persie, Radamel Falcao and Rooney but, even with the Dutchman injured, the Colombian is unlikely to start. It is an indication of how United have failed to realise their potential.
None of Van Gaal’s signings have succeeded yet.
United’s recent form has owed more to Ashley Young than Angel di Maria, Arsenal’s more to Olivier Giroud than Mesut Ozil. Yet United have 15 wins in their last 22 games and Arsenal 17 wins in 22, each could benefit from a defining win.
Even though, paradoxically, the FA Cup will not quite define either club’s season.
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