Food will be associated with these two teams for as long as the infamous "Battle of the Buffet", the pizza and soup throwing chaos that followed United's fierce resolve to end Arsenal's 49-match unbeaten run in the autumn of 2004, is remembered.

Wenger remembers it well and needs little prompting.

"They stopped us from playing, " he says simply of the brutal encounter that he also acknowledges represented the lowest point of his relationship with Alex Ferguson.

That negativity will not happen this afternoon. Both sides, Wenger claims, will come out and play attacking football. It's their recipe for success.

And, like every good recipe, there is a special ingredient.

Wenger explains what that is. "I know when I develop a player if he will be a good player, " he says. "But will he be a winner at the top level?

That is something you never know, no matter how good the player is. Because to win a game, with 10 minutes to go, both teams playing poorly, somebody finds something because he is a winner. That's the test you get. It's the one ingredient that you never master well as a manager, even with a lot of experience."

And that's because it comes from within. "The young players look to have the ingredient to be a winner, " Wenger says of his team. "That is what makes the difference."

Ferguson, too, discovered it.

"It is what made the difference with that generation of Scholes, Giggs and Beckham, " Wenger says of United.

"They won championships - once, twice, three and four times and still were hungry.

Because they were winners."

Wenger admits that not so long ago he wasn't so sure it was there in his team. Before Christmas, his frustrations were obvious. Some were shocked. The antics on the touchline at Upton Park, when he clashed with West Ham United's then manager Alan Pardew, were simply astonishing. They were, Wenger says, born of frustration. It shocked the public;

maybe, too, it shocked his players.

"I just sometimes feel that unusual behaviour can wake up things and I certainly had unusual behaviour in some games, " Wenger says. "As a manager you can only survive or live with how you feel at that moment. You cannot cheat the players. They are intelligent and are with you every day and see what kind of mood you are in. You cannot cheat with your attitude.

At that time I behaved as I was, not as I wanted to be."

Wenger now feels his sense of equilibrium has been restored. Results have provided the remedy. "What made me angry was to lose at Fulham and lose at West Ham the way we lost. We did not test them really. We had superficial superiority but that's not good enough. But when you want to develop a team, a young team, you have matches like that, " he says.

"What changed is that you feel that you are missing something in the games to win the games. And when you watch games long enough you know you will play well and have more of the ball but in the end you will not win because something is missing. And that can only be that bit of extra-special solidarity, unity, that burning desire to win. We have all see enough games to say 'Okay, it's a good team but is it a winning team?' And in October, November we lost games that were difficult to accept to lose."

Defeat today is, also, unthinkable. Wenger declares it will end Arsenal's title challenge but 15 points United before kick-off, most feel that ended some time ago. "At the moment it looks 80 per cent that it will be decided between the two (Manchester United and Chelsea), " Wenger says.

"But there is 20 per cent still there. It's still not over. Today everyone will say United but it can change very quickly. But this is the weekend. If Manchester United beat Arsenal, Arsenal are out of it definitely. There is no way back."

There is great respect for United - "Yes, I like to watch them because they like to play, " Wenger says - and the sneaking feeling is that if Arsenal don't win the Premiership, then he would prefer them to be the victors rather than Chelsea. That may be stretching it but Wenger returns to the theme of attacking the lack of "economic responsibility" at Stamford Bridge. Financially doped, he has called it in the past. "If I win the championship and my club loses £200m I don't feel very proud, " he says. "I want to win the championship and the club to make £50m. Then I'm doing my job."

It's a job in which his longevity is stretching into a second decade. That provides another bond with the country's longest-serving manager. "Over the years you have probably been more aware of our differences, " Wenger says of his relationship with Ferguson, "but we have a lot of things in common as well and one of those is the passion for winning and a passion for the game. You do not last in our job if you do not have the passion as well."

There will be many players on view today who share that passion, but none more than the 35-year-old Larsson.

When asked if he has memories of the striker, Wenger replies, with last May's European Cup final in mind, "nightmares more like".

There is also deep admiration. "I'm amazed that he still can cope with the physical demands of the game because he's not an especially physical player, " Wenger says. "He's so intelligent. When he played against Aston Villa in the FA Cup game he gave a demonstration of how simple the game of a striker can be. You do not need to fight, or be strong. Every single move was so well timed and so intelligent that it was a demonstration."

Larsson's presence, along with the development of United this season, ensures it will be a contest for the connoisseurs. There is also another guarantee - Wenger's philosophy. After all he's not likely to ask his team to take the physical approach favoured by United in 2004, is he? "With Fabregas, Rosicky, Hleb?"

Wenger replies incredulous.

The banquet has been laid.