Arsenal midfielder Henri Lansbury admits his friends at Manchester United gave him pelters after their 8-2 triumph earlier this season.
It was Lansbury's game before he moved on-loan to West Ham United.
“Then on the bus, Welbeck sent me a text. I can’t repeat it, but I didn’t reply. I just deleted the conversation. I went quiet for a couple of weeks.
“In fairness, I was at them the whole trip with the Under-21s, so I knew it was going to come back and bite me somewhere. But I obviously didn’t think like that. I had gone on with six minutes to go when we were 7-2 down. It was bizarre. Watching it from the bench, seeing the goals flying in, it was just, ‘This isn’t happening, this isn’t real’.
“When you’re 7-2 down you’ve just got to dig in and try to stop it getting even worse.
“I’ve been an Arsenal fan since I was young, so I would always help the club in any situation. And going on against United at Old Trafford has always been a dream, but it turned out to be my worst day in football. Afterwards, I think all the boys thought, ‘Did that really happen to us?’ Everyone was in shock and just wanted to get on the bus. On the way home we were in silence the whole way.
“The 8-2 will always stay with me and I’m sure it will stay with all the lads, but you can use it as a positive to make sure it never happens again. It can’t happen again to an Arsenal team.
“Even though I’m on loan at West Ham, I’ll be at the Emirates tomorrow.
“Theo Walcott has got a box, so I’ll have a word with him and see if he can smuggle me in. I really want the lads to get some revenge and I will be straight on the phone to text Welbeck if they do.”"They didn’t give me any time to get over it, they got straight into me on the pitch as we were walking off,” said Lansbury, 21, recalling an England U21 get-together with the Daily Express. “Two of them, Jonesy and Smalling, came up to me and said, ‘Oh, you lot are good aren’t you?’
