https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...into-my-obsession-and-are-immortals-t8hxcg3ql
Beaten at last: the story of pizzagate
I often relive those 49 undefeated matches. I do believe in signs to a certain extent, and as I was born in 1949, I sometimes tell myself it was our destiny to lose the 50th. Those 49 matches are etched within me and within each player: it is something fundamental, a triumph born of passion.
On 24 October 2004, after all those incredible matches, our first defeat came against Manchester United. It’s a match I will never forget. We lost 2-0 and it felt like a real hold-up job. It was a hard match, with lots of duels, fouls, frayed tempers. We dominated without managing to score. And then, in the 73rd minute, the referee gave a penalty for a foul by Sol Campbell that was undeserved and that changed the whole match.
And from there, everything started drifting, the start of a downward spiral. The players and I felt it was hugely unfair. We did not deserve to lose. After the match, the players were shoving one another, the managers too, Alex Ferguson was in the middle of the mêlée and one player, Cesc Fabregas, threw a slice of pizza that landed on his head. Clearly, our defeat, the very generous penalty, the fights and the pizza meant that the match went down in the history of our stormy relationship with
Manchester United. But it was a heavy blow for me and the team. We knew that the good times were over, that unique moment, the time without fear had passed, and we knew it would be hard to recapture that state of grace.
We were so disappointed that we could only draw our next two games against sides who would both go on to be relegated. And though we followed that with victory in a crazy north London derby by the odd goal in nine at White Hart Lane, we felt flat and drew or lost far too often. Everyone found it hard to get back on their feet.
