United will face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
Ferguson said: “If you look back over the last 12 or 13 years, who has it been? – Arsenal v Manchester United, Manchester United v Arsenal.
“Of course we’ve got Chelsea at the moment, that’s without question.
“But the history of Arsenal versus Manchester means that you’re not just talking about winning a football match, you’re talking about your own history against the other team’s history.
“There’s a dominance attached to that.
“You want to be the dominant team and they want to be the dominant team – and we’ve had some volatile matches because of that.
“But you can’t beat the history and the quality that both teams believe in and the way they want to play has never changed.”