Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is expecting an atmosphere of respect and good professional relations to pervade of-field affairs when his side face Manchester United at Old Trafford in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final on Wednesday night.
Wenger also anticipates that such respect between him and United manager Alex Ferguson will persist after the highly-anticipated clash, surviving what is likely to be an intensely competitive atmosphere.
"Our respect will survive the two games," the Frenchman told the Gunners' official website. "(Earning Ferguson's respect) is one of the privileges of getting older! "I think these two games will be a fierce competition. We’ll go completely for it and so will they."
"It will be a very interesting competition because we feel we have improved since the beginning of the season, they feel that they’ve come back into a stronger position than they were two or three weeks ago. So both teams can both be peaking at the right time. I believe really they will be very competitive games," said Wenger.
Ferguson and Wenger have enjoyed some famously ill-tempered exchanges in the past, but relations between the two seem to have mellowed in recent seasons, as the Scotsman has switched the focus of his psychological warfare to Liverpool and Rafa Benitez.
But whilst the bitterness may have dissipated from the verbal exchanges, Wenger is still aware of just how much threat the Red Devils carry, and who different it is to that posed by Chelsea, his team's conquerors in the recent FA Cup semi-final, who themselves face Barcelona this week in the other Champions League semi-final.
"We can deal with that (Man United’s physical threat)," he explained. "They are more a technical team and Chelsea are a very efficient, physical impact team. The pitch at Wembley was to their advantage."
"You could see in the first half (against Chelsea) when we could maintain a quick pace in our passing we were quite on top. But in the second half, when the game slowed down, it was down to the experience of Chelsea and the quality players they have; Essien, Ballack, Lampard and Drogba who all have a little advantage in the 50:50s,"" he said.
"But this team has shown a lot of character this year. After the disappointment against Chelsea, the way we responded three days later was magnificent. We were 2-1 at Anfield down and we could have crumbled. We came back and battled until the last second. The character is there; the quality is there so it’s interesting," he said.
"I believe we have only one desire and that is to go to the Final no matter who we play. That demands a lot of belief, which, at the moment, is quite strong I must say," he added.
And Wenger assured supporters that he would not be changing Arsenal's style for the trip to Manchester, with the value of away goals meaning that attack was on the agenda.
He concluded, "At this level you have to be audacious away. The weight of the away goal in European football could be discussed I feel. It may be a little bit too heavy. We have spoken about it, maybe making it a Carling Cup rule where it only comes in at extra time. At the moment you are encouraged to be very cautious at home but very audacious away from home."
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