Patrick Vieira has revealed the truth behind his famous fight with the Manchester United player before their Premier League clash against Arsenal at Highbury in 2005.
Arsenal and United dominated the early years of the Premier League after its creation in 1992, winning 11 of the first 12 titles between them, making every match between the clubs a must-see event.
But there was an added touch when they met in February 2005, after United ended Arsenal’s 49-game unbeaten run in the league earlier in the season, with the Gunners unhappy with some of the treatment given to their players in Old Trafford.
Vieira made his feelings clear before the second leg at Highbury when he collided with Roy Keane in the tunnel before kick-off. He recently sat down with Keane and Gary Neville to talk about exactly what happened that night.
Talking about The Overlap, brought to you by sky betNeville explained: “The context of this is that we’re warming up before the game and I’m running down the tunnel at Highbury, and suddenly I can hear banging behind me and Patrick shouting my name, ‘Oi, you’, or something like that.
Patrick Vieira (left) and Roy Keane (right) clashed in the Highbury tunnel in 2005.
Keane was furious and pointed at Vieira as referee Graham Poll tried to calm him down.
Vieira admitted that he had faced Gary Neville (right) before and couldn’t stand it.
“He ran after me in the tunnel and said, ‘You’re not kicking our damn players today,’ or something like that.”
Vieira responded: ‘That was planned by me. Because of the nine years I spent at Arsenal, I didn’t like you at all. It’s true, I couldn’t stand you (Gary Neville) at all because you were kicking everyone, and especially Robert (Pires) when he was there.
“In that game I thought I should make you aware that today you are not going to touch Robert. I knew that was the plan for you because you fought Robert.
‘That day I had to tell you to leave him alone. I felt like you were overreacting against him. Robert was nice, he was too nice to complain, and at that moment I felt like you went too far, that he was too much and it was too obvious.
“Obviously, because Manchester United controlled all the referees, you had so much power that you could do what you really wanted, so I had it planned in my mind.”
‘In the warm-up, if I saw you enter the tunnel, I would run after you. I saw you run and I just ran after you and I wanted to make you aware that today would be different and something that wasn’t going to happen.’
Vieira revealed that he pursued Neville because he was angry about his treatment of Robert Pires.
Keane was left “agitated” by Vieira’s actions and claims he fought back because he was unhappy the Frenchman had singled out Neville.
Neville then revealed that he returned to the locker room to prepare for the match and told some of his teammates what Vieira had told him, prompting Keane to “get agitated”, giving Vieira his opinion and pointing the finger. to the Gunners captain in the tunnel as he told him ‘see you there’ as referee Graham Poll tried to calm him down.
“I came out and knew there were noises,” Keane said. ‘I forgot my bracelet and that’s why I had to go back up the tunnel.
‘When I came back out the second time I knew something had happened and I remember what you (Gary) told me earlier.
‘He was agitated. What bothered me was that he went after Gary: if you go after one, you go after all of us.’
Tempers flared in the tunnel and that spilled over onto the pitch in a high-octane match that produced six goals and saw United reduced to 10 men.
Keane and Neville had the last laugh that night as United beat Arsenal 4-2 at Highbury.
Vieira put the incident behind him to give Arsenal the lead after just eight minutes, but United responded 10 minutes later through Ryan Giggs.
Arsene Wenger’s men took the lead again before the break thanks to Dennis Bergkamp, but United turned the game around after the break with two goals in four minutes from Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Red Devils sent off Mikael Silvestre with just over 20 minutes remaining, but Sir Alex Ferguson’s side held on and then sealed a 4-2 victory with a late goal from John O’Shea.
The damaging defeat ended Arsenal’s hopes of defending their title, as Chelsea won the league by 12 points under Jose Mourinho, but the Gunners finished second, six points ahead of United.
Gary Neville, Patrick Vieira and Roy Keane spoke on The Overlap, presented by sky bet.