Mercilessly mocked by the Gunners' fans at the FA Cup semi-final, a pivotal point in our history, their declaration that he went to Man United and won, well nothing, was ringing around Villa Park for both contests.
Of course, United won the replay, thanks to Ryan Giggs's wonder goal, and Teddy was involved unlike the first tie, which ended in a 0-0 draw.
The cultured operator provided the assist for David Beckham's opener, with a delicate nudge into his international colleague's path. His time was coming.
However, the striker was withdrawn at half-time of the crucial final Premier League game, against his old club, Spurs. Andy Cole came on and lobbed the winner, to clinch the title. One down, two to go.
A week later, there was the frustration of being benched again, for the FA Cup final against Newcastle United. With Roy Keane lost to injury only nine minutes in, Teddy stepped into the limelight. Combining brilliantly with Paul Scholes, he opened the scoring within a couple of minutes.
In the second half, he turned provider to superbly tee up Scholes for the clincher. United now stood on the brink of history, beat Bayern Munich in Barcelona and we would become the first-ever English side to do the Treble.