What Man United legend Roy Keane infamously said to Arsenal rival Patrick Vieira in tunnel

Manchester United take on Arsenal today and the fixture is one that always evoke memorable clashes of years gone by.

In some cases they literally were clashes, with the two teams engaged in a bitter rivalry during the 1990s and 2000s. Arguably the most iconic flashpoint of the era came in February 2005 when the respective skippers of each team, Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira, were involved in a pre-match tunnel spat.

Wayne Rooney was one of the players privy to the scene - and now he has revealed exactly why it happened and what Keane said to his opposite number.

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Writing in his Sunday Times column, former United striker Rooney said: "Keane and Vieira had their bust-up in the Highbury tunnel. Arsenal’s players had targeted Gary Neville for whatever reason and it started in the warm-up. I think Vieira and someone else chased Gary down the tunnel. He’s not a fighter, Gary — not off the pitch — and he ran into our dressing room. “What’s up with you?” we said.

"He told us what happened and when the teams lined up to go out, Roy went straight to Vieira. “If you’re going to pick on someone, try me,” he said. You can see on the footage that I’m laughing because it was quite funny — though, inside, I was thinking: “Roy, don’t do anything silly here, don’t get sent off. As it happened, Roy had a magnificent game — as did Vieira."

United would come out on top that day at Highbury with a pulsating 4-2 win although both sides lost out to Chelsea in that season's battle for the Premier League title.

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