Ian Wright names two big-name players he 'genuinely hated' during his playing career

Arsenal icon Ian Wright was one of the most feared strikers in the early years of the Premier League and has become a beloved football pundit.

Wright ended his playing career with more than 300 club goals to his name, including 113 in the Premier League and 43 in the old First Division.

For a top striker, these are the numbers that really matter. Wright won the Premier League with the Gunners but has always been defined within the football community by his individual goalscoring tally.

As a consequence of that focus, Wright is typically laser-focused when it comes to identifying the grudges he held as a player. Two Premier League rivals in particular caught his ire.

Former England striker and fellow pundit Alan Shearer frustrated Wright through sheer weight of goals alone. The Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United legend is the highest scorer in Premier League history having bagged 260 goals between 1992 and 2006.

"Proud to call him my friend now... but when we were playing I hated him - simply because of his hunger to score goals on a weekly basis," Wright told Classic Football Shirts.

"You come in and you've scored two, Shearer scores three. If you scored two, Shearer scored one. If you score three, Shearer scores two.

"So you never catch up with him. And we're talking about someone who had three years out of the game with real bad injuries and he's still got 260. He's still way out in front.

"I'm not sure really people realise the enormity of his achievement."

Wright's more direct duels on the pitch were with defenders and goalkeepers rather than rival strikers, and one in particular gave the former Crystal Palace frontman every reason to hate playing against him.

Peter Schmeichel and the striker played for various other teams in their careers but met only as Manchester United and Arsenal players.

Man Utd were dominant in their 13 encounters; Wright was on the winning side only twice against Schmeichel and his only competitive goal against the Great Dane was in the Charity Shield.

"When we speak about it now, me and Schmeichel, we talk about how much I genuinely hated him as a goalkeeper," Wright told the Match of the Day podcast.

"I knew how good he was and how hard it was to score against him. The only goals I ever scored against him were in friendlies!"

Wright allowed his animosity towards Schmeichel spill over during a match in 1997.

The Gunners were beaten 2-1 and Wright didn't receive a yellow card for a horror tackle on the United goalkeeper that was easily worth a straight red card in its own right. Alex Ferguson was livid.

"We’d had a bit of an altercation at Old Trafford which led to this game which was a couple of months later," said the pundit.

"The tackle which everybody sees, the whistle had already gone and I just didn’t stop. We’re both running for the ball, the red mist was there and I just jumped on the ball with two feet.

"They said it was the tackle that shamed football. When I look back at it now, it’s quite an embarrassing thing to see."