LONDON • Cesc Fabregas has finally confirmed that he was the man who threw pizza that landed on Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson's face in the infamous "Battle of the Buffet" in 2004.

United had just ended Arsenal's record 49-game unbeaten run with a 2-0 win when tempers flared in the Old Trafford tunnel between the two rivals, who dominated Premier League football then.

Wayne Rooney won a penalty after appearing to go down without contact, allowing Ruud van Nistelrooy to open the scoring before the England forward sealed the win late on.

Arsenal were livid with the refereeing from Mike Riley throughout the game and the two teams clashed in the tunnel after the match. Amid the confusion, pizza got thrown in the direction of the United players, with Ferguson ending up on the receiving end of a couple of slices of the post-match buffet.

The former United manager confirmed in his autobiography that an Arsenal player had launched a slice of pizza at him during the "Pizzagate" fracas and had reason to suspect Fabregas.

Former Arsenal defender Martin Keown told the Daily Mail in 2014 that he saw Fabregas throwing the pizza, but the Spaniard has always remained tight-lipped on the accusation.

Now the midfielder, who plays for Chelsea, has admitted that he was the Arsenal player who threw the pizza in Ferguson's direction, reported the Metro.

In an upcoming episode of A League Of Their Own, a British television comedy panel game, host James Corden asks Fabregas: "Tonight, can we finally put the case of the flying pizza to bed once and for all? Were you the culprit that thew the pizza?"

Fabregas replies, "Yes", before saying: "Keown is a liar because I saw him in front of me just, like, punching people so he didn't see anything.

"All of a sudden, I heard noises and I thought what's happening? So I go out with my slice of pizza and I saw Sol Campbell, Rio Ferdinand, Martin Keown… everyone pushing each other. I was like I want to get in but I don't know how to and I threw… peeew… just threw it. Once I saw it was hitting, like, who it was hitting, which I didn't mean. I apologise Sir Alex, really didn't mean to do that."

Asked by former Premier League player Jamie Redknapp where the pizza hit Ferguson, Fabregas tapped the side of his own face.