2004: Roy Keane clashes with Patrick Vieira in the FA Cup Final at Cardiff
Their rivalry was the stuff of titans, an intoxicating mix of sublime aptitude and violent conflict
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This article is taken from the October 2026 issue of The Critic. To get the full magazine why not subscribe? Find our subscription offers here.
The first day of October marks the 30th anniversary of arguably the most seismic moment in modern English football. The arrival at Highbury of a tall, bespectacled man who looked more like a teacher than a manager didn’t seem the stuff of which earthquakes were made: but this was Arsène Wenger, and he brought a Richter scale of changes with him.