Arsenal History: A tribute to Patrick Vieira’s brilliant career – Our greatest captain?

Patrick Vieira

Patrick Vieira is one of the greatest captains Arsenal has ever had in their history for whom he played for almost 300 times in nearly a decade.

The legendary midfielder won more than a hatful of trophies throughout his career at AC Cannes, AC Milan, Arsenal, Juventus, Inter Milan, Manchester City and France. He picked up three premier league titles, five FA Cups, three community shields, five Serie A titles, one Supercoppa Italiana, one World Cup, one European Championship and one Confederations Cup.

Vieira’s proudest moment in an Arsenal shirt came when he skippered his side to the 2003/04 Invincible title going 38 Premier League games heroically undefeated. In fact the fierce unwavering midfielder scored the first goal in the 2-2 draw at arch rivals Tottenham’s home when the trophy was claimed at White Hart Lane.

He encountered a slightly ugly situation at the start of the campaign when in September he was forced to miss a match being handed a slap on the wrist £20,000 fine for not obeying the referee’s instruction to walk off the pitch after being sent off against title rivals Manchester United. Matters got slightly worse for him not long afterwards for two months when he later picked up a thigh strain versus Newcastle United, fortunately for Vieira’s sake and Arsenal’s he recovered to guide The Gunners to league glory.

This was the last of his three titles with the first achieved in only his second year at Highbury after signing in 1996 for a mere £3.5 million in today’s footballing terms. During the 1997/98 campaign Vieira assisted Arsenal to his first and Arsenals second double after being crowned champions of the Premiership and within days the FA Cup in a 2-0 victory over Newcastle United at Wembley. Like with the start of the invincible season Vieira was hampered by injury in November in a 3-2 edging versus Manchester United in which he grabbed his first Gunners strike, after injuring his knee which put him on the sidelines for a month. Within weeks of the New Year the uncontrollable midfielder at times was handed his first red card during a match versus Coventry City after verbally abusing the referee. In the summer of 1998 he clinched his one and only World Cup with France after his nation bulldozed Brazil 3-0 in the final.

After the anti-climax of the 1998/99 season which saw Arsenal trophyless Vieira was voted for the Player‘s football associations Team of the Year.

Just before the start of the 2000/01 campaign Vieira won his second International winners medal with France after his future Arsenal teammate Sylvain Wiltord that year scored the equaliser which took the final to extra-time against Italy, where his country ended up winning 2-1.

With Arsenal still having not won the League or Cup for three years Vieira managed to squeeze his final International trophy out of the park in 2001 when France lifted the

Confederations Cup 1-0 over Japan, with the Frenchman slamming in the only goal of the game. He would later retire from International football eight years later in 2009 after playing for his country for 12 years which saw him make 107 dreamy matches and six strikes for France.

In 2002 Arsenal had finally returned to successful ways with Vieira helping them grab their second double in the 21st century. The Gunners beat Liverpool to the Premiership before then adding to their trophy cabinet when London rivals Chelsea were defeated 2-0 in the FA Cup only days afterwards. Many questioned whether the critical defender would even start the season after he came close to signing for Manchester United without Arsenal being directly contacted in the move which never occurred. However he was later told he would be allowed to take over the captain’s armband from Tony Adam once he had finished his days in North London in May 2002.

In 2003 after Arsenal had struggled to keep the Premiership at Highbury they instead went onto secure the FA Cup in a 1-0 narrow win over Southampton, despite not being able to compete in the final due to injury the Frenchman had still done enough to earn a winners medal.

Vieira would earn his final major honour at Arsenal in 2005 after he scored the winning penalty in the shootout in the FA Cup final against Manchester United after a 0-0 stalemate at the end of extra-time. Within months Vieira was out the doors of Arsenal for Juventus for £13.75 million, leaving his fellow Frenchman Arsene Wenger who he described as being the key reason to why he joined Arsenal in the first place in 1996.

Vieira should’ve triumphed in Juve’s 2006 Serie A win however due to the infamous match fixing scandal Calciopoli they were taken away from both party’s which saw the Italians handed a 17 points removal by the Italian Football Federation and relegation to Serie B.

The midfielder would finally be able to wrap his hands around some Italian silverware again at Inter Milan after having sealed the 1995/96 Serie A title with close neighbours AC Milan. He would secure the Serie A Quadruple in 2010 after Inter had won it four years on the trot from 2007-2010. He had only been at Inter since 2006!

Once Vieira’s time was done in Italy he flew back to England to play for Manchester City during the 2010/11 campaign which saw him grab the 2011 FA Cup after Stoke City were beaten 1-0 in which he came off the bench for in the dying seconds. Not long afterwards Vieira admitted his playing days were over kicking off his boots in style.

However in 2013 a desire for management brought him back into the game where he managed Manchester City’s u-23s till 2015. He then spent a couple of years each at New York City FC and French team Nice before landing in the head coach role at Selhurst Park with Crystal Palace in 2021 before ironically being sacked on St Patrick’s day last year.

Vieira is currently in charge of French Ligue 1 side Strasbourg where he’s been in charge of the mid-table side since early July 2023.

Despite his difficulties in management Vieira was conducted into the Premier League Hall of Fame in 2022. He is regarded as one of the hardest players to have played in England in the last 28 years and is a modern day icon at Arsenal and in World football.

Liam Harding