Soccer: Giants of premier league to clash

Patrick Vieira smiles broadly the moment the name Roy Keane is mentioned.

"I don't mind at all," the Arsenal captain says almost before the question whether he is prepared for a confrontation between the two in Sunday's (NZT) FA Cup final has been completed.

"You always enjoy playing against the big players and he is one of the big players in this country and, of course, it's exciting," Vieira said, the smile cheekily spreading further across his face.

As exciting and incendiary as the events of the evening of February 1, when the two captains verbally clashed in the tunnel prior to the Premiership match at Highbury.

During that exchange, Keane questioned Vieira's attitude towards his birthplace, Senegal.

This week, Vieira responded - asking what right did Keane have to criticise after walking out on the Republic of Ireland's 2002 World Cup campaign?

Vieira emphatically stands by his comments, asking "Is that not true?" Of course it is. "Then thank you," he continued.

The touchpaper has been lit. His intent was clear.

If there was to be any attempt by Manchester United or their captain to stare him or his team down then he was going to challenge it.

"He's hard," Vieira said of Keane. "But Steven Gerrard is the same as well. There are a few players who are like that who are quite strong and are good players."

Keane, the man who dismissed the FA Cup as an unloved afterthought, could this weekend become the venerable competition's most decorated footballer since the 19th century.

In his autobiography, Keane made light of the cup's status in the light of the furore caused by United not defending their trophy in 2000 - they instead went to Brazil to play the first and, to date, last World Club Championship.

Sunday's match against Arsenal will be Keane's seventh final, a figure surpassed only by Lord Arthur Kinnaird who played in nine for the Wanderers and Old Etonians before United - then known as Newton Heath - had even entered the competition.

If United win, Keane will become, with Ryan Giggs, should both play, the only men to collect five winners' medals since the Victorian age.

For the Irishman this is the second successive season since publication that United have been left with only the FA Cup to contest.

Vieira's appetite for Sunday's contest was also an unambiguous message for Arsenal.

This northern summer, Vieira pledged, there would be no prevarication as to whether he was staying or going.

"Exactly," he said when asked if he wanted to end the continuous talk of Real Madrid which has occurred over the last four years.

"Firstly I have two years left on my contract," said Vieira, 28, who has spent nine years at Highbury, after moving from Milan.

"And secondly I believe we have not really achieved what we can do as a team.

"I believe that the team can do much better with the way we play and the quality of the young players coming through.

"The next three or four years will be really important and I want to be part of it."

Those years will include the last at Highbury, before the move to a new stadium and Vieira knows he has a key role to play in that transition and the growth of players such as Cesc Fabregas and Jose Antonio Reyes.

The latter has been the victim of United's perceived rough-house tactics in recent contests.

The accusation is that the Spanish international has been targeted and wasn't able to withstand that.

Vieira was adamant that even if that is the case, his team-mate is prepared this time.

"He's ready for it," Vieira said. "This is his first season in the premiership and you learn a lot. He can't wait for the final."

Neither can his captain, despite the persistent ankle injury which has hampered a season in which he admits his performance levels have dropped.

"I don't think I was near to my best," Vieira said.

In himself he is happier, more content.

He is also, temperamentally, better equipped than ever, citing his ability not to react to Blackburn Rovers' aggressive tactics in the cup semi-final as compelling evidence.

Four or five years ago, Vieira would have retaliated and been sent off, said Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.

"You learn a lot from your mistakes and of course I did make mistakes over the years and I learned from it," Vieira said of the nine red cards he has received at Arsenal.

"Being captain of the club gives me more responsibility and the way I behave as a captain is really important. It's why I am more careful now in the way that I react."

He believes he is still targeted. "Yes, I think so," Vieira added. "But I take it in the right way.

"They do it because of the way I am playing. It's more a compliment than anything."

There will be few of those passed on Sunday and Vieira knows exactly how high the stakes are for both teams.

"Man Utd is like Arsenal. Both are big clubs and every year the club wants to win trophies."

There is, nevertheless, a fundamental difference.

"I think we have played fantastic football," Vieira said. "Better than last year. We have taken it to another level. That's why we deserve to win a trophy."

Last season Arsenal constructed their fabulous unbeaten sequence - a run which notoriously ended, after 49 League matches, in October at Old Trafford.

That was hard to take. And not just because it was United who inflicted it.

"We were in a position in which when we went onto the pitch, our belief and our confidence was so high and of course you go on to the pitch knowing that you will win the game," Vieira said.

Losing shattered that confidence.

"We took time to respond. We took time to win games and of course that's why we lost the plot to retain the championship.

"We took too long to get back into it. Sometimes in football you find yourself in this position and you cannot explain. It's difficult."

As was the February defeat at Highbury, after that tunnel spat, which stretched United's unbeaten run over Arsenal in competitive matches to seven.

If Vieira can claim "luck" has been on United's side in some of those contests and that "small decisions make a big difference", he also concedes "at Highbury, yes, they were much better than us".

"They were really strong and really composed as a team and deserved to win the game. But we will be waiting on Saturday. Don't worry."

Vieira said he "doesn't know" what to expect from United this time round.

If there's aggression then that's "part of the game and we will expect that. It's the way we take it and the way we respond which will be important."

"We have a good answer because we are not afraid of playing against Man United or against other teams.

"What is really important for us is to play our own game with the ball on the floor and, with our passing, we will have a good chance to beat them."

- INDEPENDENT

The record

* Manchester United and Arsenal boast the two most successful records in the trophy's 133-year history.
* United have won it a record 11 times from 16 appearances - five of those wins coming since 1990.
* Arsenal, who first lifted the trophy in 1930 at the start of their first glorious era, have won it nine times.
* After Manchester United first won the cup in 1909 - goalscorer Sandy Turnbull was killed eight years later in World War I - they did not appear in another final for almost four decades.
* Bryan Robson, who last weekend revived his old Captain Marvel heroics by managing to keep West Bromwich Albion in the premier league, earned his nickname by becoming the first man to captain three FA Cup-winning teams, leading United to victory in 1983, 1985 and 1990.
* The replayed 1990 victory over Crystal Palace was Alex Ferguson's first trophy as United boss.
* Arsenal, winners in 2002 and 2003, are looking to win the cup for the third time in four seasons and have laid to rest an old Arsenal ghost by doing so well in Cardiff. In their first final, in 1927, they were beaten 1-0 by Cardiff City at Wembley when Arsenal's Welsh goalkeeper, Dan Lewis, let in a softish shot for the only goal of the game. Arsenal coach Tom Whittaker believed the ball slipped under Lewis' arm because of the sheen on his new jersey. From that day it has been a club tradition to wash every new goalkeeper's jersey before it is worn in a match.