Patrick Vieira finally reveals real reason why furious Roy Keane and Gary Neville tunnel incident happened

Arsenal legend Patrick Vieira has finally explained why his furious tunnel incident with Roy Keane and Gary Neville happened.

Back in 2005, Arsenal welcomed Manchester United to Highbury in the Premier League.

Ahead of the match, Vieira clashed with then-Red Devils skipper Keane inside the tunnel.

The encounter between the two teams had extra spice after United ended the Gunners’ 49-match unbeaten run earlier in the season.

Speaking recently on the latest episode of Stick to Football, brought to you by Sky Bet, Vieira spoke about the incident that will forever be etched in Premier League history.

Neville said: “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.”

In response, Vieira said: “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.”

The Frenchman continued: “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 added: “I came out and I knew there were noises. I forgot my armband so that’s why I had to go back up the tunnel. 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.”

Patrick Vieira, Gary Neville and Roy Keane were speaking on Stick to Football, brought to you by Sky Bet.

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