Patrick Vieira has revealed the truth behind his famous row with the Manchester United player ahead of their Premier League match against Arsenal at Highbury in 2005.
Arsenal and United dominated the Premier League’s first few years after its formation in 1992, winning eleven of the first twelve titles between them, making every match between the clubs an unmissable event.
But there was even more spice when they met in February 2005, after United had ended Arsenal’s 49-match unbeaten run in the league earlier this season, with the Gunners unhappy with some of the treatment of their players at Old Trafford.
Vieira took it upon himself to make his feelings clear ahead of the second leg at Highbury when he clashed with Roy Keane in the tunnel before kick-off. He recently reunited with Keane and Gary Neville to talk about exactly what happened that night.
Speaking about The Overlap, brought to you by Sky betNeville explained: ‘The context of this is we’re warming up for the match and I’m running through the tunnel at Highbury, and all of a sudden I hear pops behind me, and Patrick shouts my name, ‘Oi jou’, or something like that.
Patrick Vieira (left) and Roy Keane (right) collided in the Highbury Tunnel in 2005
Keane was furious and pointed his finger at Vieira as referee Graham Poll tried to calm him down
Vieira admitted that he had previously confronted Gary Neville (right) and that he couldn’t stand him
‘He ran after me in the tunnel and said, ‘You’re not going to kick our bloody players today,’ or something like that.’
Vieira replied, “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 at all [Gary Neville] because you kicked everyone, especially Robert [Pires] when he was there.
‘In that match I was like: I have to make you aware that you are not going to touch Robert today. I knew this 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 being over the top with him. Robert was nice, he was too nice to complain, and I felt at that moment that you went over the top, it 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 to do, so I had it planned in my head.
“If I saw you going into the tunnel during warm-up, I would run after you. I saw you running, and I just ran after you and wanted to make you aware that today was going to be different and something was not going to happen.”
Vieira revealed he went after Neville because he was angry at his treatment of Robert Pires
Keane was ‘agitated’ by Vieira’s actions and claims he fought back because he was unhappy that the Frenchman had picked Neville.
Neville then revealed that he returned to the dressing room to prepare for the match and told some of his teammates what Vieira had said to him, which led to Keane becoming ‘agitated’, giving Vieira a piece of his mind and with his finger pointed. at the Gunners captain in the tunnel, telling him: ‘See you there’ as referee Graham Poll tried to calm him down.
“I came out and I knew there were noises,” Keane said. ‘I forgot my bracelet, so I had to go back into the tunnel.
“When I came back the second time, I knew something was up, and I remember what you [Gary] told me before.
‘I was excited. My annoyance was that he went after Gary – you go after one, you go after all of us.”
Tempers flared in the tunnel and spilled over onto the pitch in a thrilling match that saw six goals and United reduce to ten men.
Keane and Neville had the last laugh that night as United beat Arsenal 4-2 at Highbury
Vieira put the incident behind him and put Arsenal ahead after eight minutes, but United hit back ten minutes later through Ryan Giggs.
Arsène Wenger’s men took the lead again before half-time thanks to Dennis Bergkamp, but United turned the game on its head after the break with two goals in four minutes from Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Red Devils sent off Mikael Silvestre with just over 20 minutes to go, but Sir Alex Ferguson’s side held on and then sealed a 4-2 win 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 did finish second, six points ahead of United.
Gary Neville, Patrick Vieira and Roy Keane spoke about The Overlap, brought to you by Sky bet.
