It brings it home to you how much Manchester United’s rivalry with Arsenal has dwindled over the last 11 seasons when you tot up the head-to-head going back to the start of the 2004-2005 season. I make it 17 wins for United, five draws and six wins for Arsenal. Mind you, I’m including in those six Arsenal wins the 2004 Community Shield and the FA Cup final the following May that they won on penalties.

I still can’t let that 2005 Cup final go. We should have won it.

When United face Arsenal on Monday in the FA Cup at Old Trafford, it is hard to see Arsenal winning even though it has been far from a great season for Louis van Gaal’s team. Cup games are always different but on a wider note, I think it will also be United against Arsenal for fourth place over the next 10 games in the Premier League. Liverpool look to me like the best bet for third. They are certainly playing better football than either United or Arsenal.

When it came to playing Arsenal over the last eight years of my career at United, we always went into games against them feeling like we would win – and we usually did. Years earlier I played in the 6-1 win over them at Old Trafford in February 2001. When you look back on that Arsenal team there were some good players and the next season they won the title, beating us at Old Trafford. Since 2004, the decline has been obvious.

I was a substitute for the two Champions League semi-final legs against them in 2009 when United won home and away. We blew them away at the Emirates in the second leg and won 3-1. Our team had pace and power, especially in Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney. Arsenal wanted to be like Barcelona but they just were not as good. We always felt we could get at them.

QPR v Arsenal - player ratings 13 show all QPR v Arsenal - player ratings 1/13 Rob Green: 6 Put under pressure much more in the second half. Difficult to criticise him for the two Arsenal goals. If it wasn’t for him the difference between the sides would have been greater. A strong save to deny Ozil late on. GETTY 2/13 Darnell Furlong: 5 Similar to Yun, he chose to push forward and attack the right flank. Very good range of passing too. Defensively, though, he was poor. That was proven when Sanchez easily skipped past him before scoring Arsenal’s second. GETTY 3/13 Sandro: 6 Did well on his return back from a knee injury. Looked to progress play where possible and fed Austin particularly well. Tired in the second half and was replaced by Niko Kranjcar on 56 minutes. 4/13 David Ospina: 6 Relatively comfortable evening. Austin’s shots on target were in the centre of his goal and didn’t trouble the goalkeeper. Beaten by a beautiful effort by the striker - may have done a little better. Getty 5/13 Kieran Gibbs: 7 Linked up very well with Sanchez in the second half. His penetrating runs down the left made it difficult for Furlong. 6/13 Per Mertesacker: 6 Back in central defence after he was on the substitutes’ bench against Everton. He did well against the physical Zamora. GETTY 7/13 Gabriel Paulista: 5 Struggled with the presence of Zamora. He was replaced on 36 minutes by Laurent Koscielny due to injury. GETTY 8/13 Hector Bellerin: 6 Got the better of Yun on the left side of the QPR defence numerous times. He was allowed plenty of space on the overlap but his final ball was often poor. GETTY 9/13 Tomas Rosicky: 6 Misplaced pass. Marked well by Hoilett. His creativity was stifled in the first half but in the second he found a slightly better range of passing. Getty 10/13 Francis Coquelin: 6 His first match since sustaining a broken nose in the home win against Everton. The game seemed to bypass him at times. Getty 11/13 Mesut Ozil: 7 Started the attack that led to Arsenal’s opening goal. Positioned behind Giroud, the German became more important as the game wore on. GETTY 12/13 Olivier Giroud: 7 Not particularly convincing in the first half. He chose more often than not to fire aimlessly from outside the area. That changed in the second half. His goal set Arsenal on their way. Getty 13/13 Alexis Sanchez: 8 More of a threat in the second half as he started to cut in from the left. Roamed all over Arsenal’s attack. He should have scored when he was one-on-one with Green. Redeemed himself when he doubled his side’s lead on 70 minutes after skillful play. Getty 1/13 Rob Green: 6 Put under pressure much more in the second half. Difficult to criticise him for the two Arsenal goals. If it wasn’t for him the difference between the sides would have been greater. A strong save to deny Ozil late on. GETTY 2/13 Darnell Furlong: 5 Similar to Yun, he chose to push forward and attack the right flank. Very good range of passing too. Defensively, though, he was poor. That was proven when Sanchez easily skipped past him before scoring Arsenal’s second. GETTY 3/13 Sandro: 6 Did well on his return back from a knee injury. Looked to progress play where possible and fed Austin particularly well. Tired in the second half and was replaced by Niko Kranjcar on 56 minutes. 4/13 David Ospina: 6 Relatively comfortable evening. Austin’s shots on target were in the centre of his goal and didn’t trouble the goalkeeper. Beaten by a beautiful effort by the striker - may have done a little better. Getty 5/13 Kieran Gibbs: 7 Linked up very well with Sanchez in the second half. His penetrating runs down the left made it difficult for Furlong. 6/13 Per Mertesacker: 6 Back in central defence after he was on the substitutes’ bench against Everton. He did well against the physical Zamora. GETTY 7/13 Gabriel Paulista: 5 Struggled with the presence of Zamora. He was replaced on 36 minutes by Laurent Koscielny due to injury. GETTY 8/13 Hector Bellerin: 6 Got the better of Yun on the left side of the QPR defence numerous times. He was allowed plenty of space on the overlap but his final ball was often poor. GETTY 9/13 Tomas Rosicky: 6 Misplaced pass. Marked well by Hoilett. His creativity was stifled in the first half but in the second he found a slightly better range of passing. Getty 10/13 Francis Coquelin: 6 His first match since sustaining a broken nose in the home win against Everton. The game seemed to bypass him at times. Getty 11/13 Mesut Ozil: 7 Started the attack that led to Arsenal’s opening goal. Positioned behind Giroud, the German became more important as the game wore on. GETTY 12/13 Olivier Giroud: 7 Not particularly convincing in the first half. He chose more often than not to fire aimlessly from outside the area. That changed in the second half. His goal set Arsenal on their way. Getty 13/13 Alexis Sanchez: 8 More of a threat in the second half as he started to cut in from the left. Roamed all over Arsenal’s attack. He should have scored when he was one-on-one with Green. Redeemed himself when he doubled his side’s lead on 70 minutes after skillful play. Getty

That was the way for years after the era of Patrick Vieira. I know it has been said before, but I see no leaders in the current Arsenal team. The club have been spoiled with them in the past, the likes of Tony Adams, Lee Dixon, Steve Bould, Vieira, Emmanuel Petit. Now they just do not have the same kind of players who can take control of a game or a situation.

It has been said that Arsenal have been better this year, but they still seem to be liable to crumble against a good opponent who is much more focused, as Monaco were last week. Over the years, the big players who were really ambitious – Vieira, Thierry Henry, Cesc Fabregas, Robin van Persie – have all left. They left for the simple reason that Arsenal are not in it to win league titles any more.

Those players have realised that if they want to win championships then they have to move elsewhere. It’s why I think Mesut Özil took the easy option joining Arsenal. Since he has been there you cannot doubt his quality but at times he looks like he is going through the motions, however much ground he covers. He needs a leader around him to get him going. At Real Madrid he had a chance of winning league titles. At Arsenal that is not on the cards.

It is hard when you have a recent history as successful as Arsenal were under Arsène Wenger in his first 10 years at the club. Hard in that you will always be compared to great teams of the past – as the current United team are just finding out now. My issue with Arsenal is that I don’t think they are striving to be like the great teams of theirs who used to battle us for the league title. They seem happy to finish fourth every year.