There was a seismic shift in the Premier League 13 years ago. A young, brash Jose Mourinho had arrived onto the scene and backed by Abramovich’s millions, set about dominating the league for the next two seasons, breaking the old duopoly of Manchester United and Arsenal. While Mourinho didn’t last nearly as long as the managers of those two sides, he also set up Chelsea for sustained success over the next decade.
Part of that shift was also an incident that did not involve Chelsea however, namely the Battle of the Buffet, which saw Arsenal lose a Premier League match for the first time in fifty (50!) games. They had gone an entire season undefeated (the “Invincibles”, whose points total would be then promptly broken by Chelsea) — they have not come close to winning the title again since that 2-0 reverse.
But at the time, that was still old school Arsenal, the Arsenal of Vieira, and they weren’t about to take the loss lying down. In what came to be called the Battle of the Buffet, the two teams clashed in the tunnel after the match, and at some point, someone threw a slice of post-match pizza at Sir Alex Ferguson. The culprit was long suspected to be Cesc Fabregas. Thirteen years later, Mr. Magic Hat has finally admitted it was indeed him in an appearance on Sky’s sports comedy quiz show “A League of Their Own”.
Cesc Fàbregas finally admits to throwing a pizza at Sir Alex Ferguson back in 2004 A League Of Their Own
Posted by SPORF on Wednesday, October 4, 2017
“'Yes!”
“[But key witness] Martin Keown is a liar because I saw him in front of me just, like, punching people so he didn't see anything.
“All of a sudden, I heard noises and I thought what's happening? So I go out with my slice of pizza and I saw Sol Campbell, Rio Ferdinand, Martin Keown... everyone pushing each other. I was like I want to get in but I don't know how to and I threw... peeew... just threw it. Once I saw it was hitting, like, who it was hitting, which I didn't mean…”
“I apologise Sir Alex, really didn't mean to do that.”
-Cesc Fabregas; source: Sky via Mail
Attaboy, Cesc. Ever the little sh*t-stirrer.