Few midfielders in Premier League history were as intimidating as Patrick Vieira.
The Arsenal legend made 405 appearances for the North London outfit, bearing the captain's armband in many of those and winning three Premier League titles and plenty of other silverware along the way.
A towering presence in midfield, Vieira wasn’t just a world-class footballer, he was the sort of player no opponent in their right mind would want to cross. Unless, of course, that opponent was Roy Keane.
The duo formed one of the greatest player rivalries in the sport's history and their fiery altercations on the pitch defined English football's most ferocious periods. It was Arsenal against Manchester United, Arsene Wenger against Sir Alex Ferguson and Vieira against Keane - pure cinema at its finest.
But when speaking about the one Manchester United icon he truly "could not stand" during this fierce derby, it wasn't Keane who got the nod. Vieira instead singled out a particular defender who many regard as among the greatest in Premier League history.
Vieira: 'I Couldn't Stand Gary Neville'
The Frenchman had strong words for the right-back
It always promised to be a day of drama whenever Arsenal locked horns with Manchester United. One of the most infamous encounters between the two came at Highbury in 2005 where tensions had already boiled over before a ball had even been kicked.
A dispute between Vieira and Gary Neville saw Keane come storming to his teammate's defence, and the trio recalled the events of the day years later together on Sky Bet's Stick to Football show, and Neville explained the context.
"The context of this is that we’re warming up before the game and I run down the tunnel at Highbury, and I can hear thuds behind me all of a sudden, and Patrick shouting my name, 'Oi you', or something like that.
"'He ran up behind me in the tunnel and said, 'You won’t kick our f***ing players today', or something like that."
To that, Vieira then responded:
"That was planned by me. Because of the nine years I spent at Arsenal, I didn’t like you at all. It is true, I couldn’t stand you at all [Gary Neville] because you were kicking everybody, and especially Robert [Pires] when he was there.
"In that game I was like I must make you aware that today you are not going to touch Robert. I knew that was the plan for you because you struggled against Robert.
"That day I had to tell you to leave him alone. I felt that you were over the top against him. Robert was nice, he was too nice to complain, and I felt at that time you went over the top, it was too much, and it was too obvious."
"Obviously, because of Manchester United controlling all the referees, you had so much power you were allowed to do what you really wanted to do, so I had it planned in my mind."
Neville admitted he shared this encounter with his teammates in the United dressing room, which left Keane particularly infuriated: "I was agitated. My annoyance was that he went after Gary. You go after one, you go after all of us." Ultimately, this was the root of the iconic tunnel clash between Vieira and the Irishman.
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Statistics courtesy of Transfermarkt.com - Correct as of 17/06/2025