Arsenal legend Patrick Vieira brilliantly settles Roy Keane debate with eight-word claim

Arsenal legend Patrick Vieira has moved to end the debate involving himself and former Manchester United captain Roy Keane once and for all.

During the late 90s and the first half of the 00s the battle for Premier League dominance was often contested by the Gunners and the Red Devils and with so much at stake, it usually resulted in hostile clashes at Highbury and Old Trafford that sometimes spilled into the dugout between Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson.

But on the pitch, these fixtures were mostly defined by the Vieira vs Keane battle. A classic example of just how intense things were was on display in January 2005 as the latter attempted to confront the former in the tunnel before kick-off in response to an incident involving Gary Neville a few minutes earlier.

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Since then, though, the pair have buried the hatchet. They have done punditry duty for major tournaments together and Keane even treated Vieira to an ice cream once - a sight that the Crystal Palace manager admits surprised supporters who had seen the one-time rivals out together.

"We were walking back to the hotel and went to an ice cream shop, some fans saw and couldn't believe it was Roy and myself walking around eating ice cream together," he told Sky Sports' Saturday Social. "He was the one who paid, the better player never paid so he was the one who had to pay for the ice cream."

But what won't come as a shock is Vieira's respect for Keane which came about immediately upon his arrival in England from AC Milan in 1996: "From the first game, I knew straight away that it will be a fight in every single game," he told BT Sports' 'What I Wore' YouTube series.