Patrick Vieira reveals why he lost his temper in infamous tunnel bust-up with Roy Keane

In a compelling round table discussion on the latest edition of The Overlap with SkyBet, Vieira sat down with Gary Neville and Roy Keane to look back on their careers and the subject of the clash ahead Arsenal’s game against Manchester United at Highbury was raised.

“That was planned by me,” said Vieira. “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 (looking at Neville) because you were kicking everybody, and especially Robert (Pires) when he was there.

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“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.

“In the warm-up, if I saw you going into the tunnel, I would run after you. I saw you running, and I just ran behind you and wanted to make you aware that today would be different and something that wasn’t going to happen.”

Keane interjected to suggest he was annoyed by Vieira’s decision to target Neville as gave his version of events.

“I came out and I knew there were noises,” Keane said. “I forgot my armband so that’s why I had to go back up the tunnel,” he reflected.

“When I came back out the second time, I knew that something had gone on, and I remember what you [Gary] told me previously.

“I was agitated. My annoyance was that he went after Gary – you go after one, you go after all of us.”

Vieira went on to reflect on his midfield battles with Keane, which were a highlight of the Premier League in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

“I loved it. Honestly – it was probably the best period in my career when we played against Manchester United,” added Vieira.

“Every single game that we played against each other, it was like you have to be ready for it because he’s going to go for it, so I have to be prepared, I have to be ready to go into those challenges. It was more challenging because we had the same kind of quality.

“We are competitors, we are winners, we don’t like to be down on the field and of course when two people like that come together, it became really challenging.

“At the end, it was about the respect, and I never had any kind of nastiness – I never felt like doing anything from behind, everything was face-to-face and of course I wanted to win, he wanted to win.

“When I was going on the field, I said to myself that if I managed to win the duel against him (Keane) that would help the team to play with more confidence – so if I could get on top of you, that would help the team to believe that we can win those kind of games.”