So when it came to games, whoever you were up against, you weren’t scared.



I hadn’t realised until I saw the footage back, that I actually gave away the first foul of the game.



Eight seconds in.



For a foul on Vieira.



I just tried to set a tone early in the game.



What had happened in the tunnel had fired us up, even more so that we already were. We didn’t have to say anything to each other about it. We knew it was going out on television, and when you have a bit of action in the tunnel like that, psychologically it becomes massive to win that game. If we didn’t, we knew people would say ‘Vieira got to Keane,’ ’Vieira got to Man United’, ‘Arsenal’s plan worked.’



So you’re thinking:



No matter what, we’re not losing tonight.



Then Vieira scores straight away, and you’re thinking:



Ok, he’s up for it as well.



I know I said it was on me if he scored, by the way, but that was in open play. As a young lad, I wasn’t given the job of man-marking at corners. I got the space at the front post to attack. So when Vieira heads in from a corner, it wasn’t on me – I’ll have to have another look back to see who was supposed to be marking him!



Still, you’re walking back to the centre circle and you’re thinking:



We definitely can’t lose this now. Vieira’s done that in the tunnel and now he’s gone and scored the first goal.



They’re not winning the game like this.



He’s not scoring the goal that wins it.



Those were all the things going through my head, and I know for a fact that they were going through Roy’s head, Scholesy’s head, Giggsy’s head, Gaz’s head, Rio’s head… we all had that same mindset.



So, with both teams so fired up, it was a good job we had Graham Poll as referee. I liked Graham. I thought he was the best referee at the time. He understood the game and the magnitude of it. He was willing to let it be a game. He knew there was going to be tackles, going to be altercations, pushing, and I think he probably stretched the rules a little bit to allow it to be the game it was going to be. Otherwise he’d have stopped it every few seconds and it wouldn’t have been a spectacle at all. He was the right referee for that game at that time.



Robert Pires got booked for a kick-out at me, a bit of petulance, and Wazza – who was extremely fired up – came over, got involved and ended up having a bit of a talking-to from Graham. There was an article in one of the papers the next day about how many times Wazza swore, about kids watching the game and all that, but it was a common thing, you know? I don’t swear too much in day-to-day life but on the pitch I do swear a lot, so it becomes a thing. You’re just in the zone. It was the way we were in training every day as well. You might look at that and think: ‘That’s excessive’, but ask our fitness coach Tony Strudwick, who used to referee our training game; it was like that pretty much every day. This wasn’t us turning it on for a game, this was us pretty much how we were day in, day out: desperate to win, to be the best. We were going to argue and snarl at every decision.



So, when Giggsy equalises via a deflection, but Bergkamp then puts Arsenal 2-1 up before half-time, obviously we weren’t happy to be going in behind. The conversation in the dressing room very much echoed the mood at the start of the game.



We’re not coming here and losing.



It’s not an option.



There were words said about the goals we’d conceded – there always were – so we were told to nail that down. That kind of thing doesn’t happen again. Then, just keep playing because we can definitely hurt them. We knew it was always going to be a tough game against Arsenal, but at the same time we always knew we were capable of hurting them.



In the opening 15 minutes of the second half, we really hurt them.



At the time I felt like Roy, who was meant to be playing as the holding midfielder, realised there was a bit of space to work with, so he started driving forward with the ball and taking the game to Arsenal with those runs of his. For me it was just: ‘great, I’ll just come in around and let Roy drive forward’, so that was what I did.



Ronaldo equalised with a great finish, then scored again a few minutes later. Roy drove the team forward and played a great ball to Giggsy with the outside of his foot, curled it around the defender. I remember at the time thinking: ‘what a pass’, and then Giggsy’s delivery, well… right foot, goalkeeper rushing towards him, defenders around him, virtually on the byline, and he just drops it on the line for Ronny to prod it in. Classic Giggsy. Ridiculous.



His qualities in the final third in terms of picking passes were vastly underrated. People see him as this dribbling, flying winger, but Giggsy was the best assist passer of the ball around. Little dinks, giving the eyes to goalkeepers, Giggsy was brilliant at all that, so it didn’t surprise anybody in our dressing room, even with his right foot, that he pulled off an assist like that.



And Ronaldo… well, he was desperate to score, wasn’t he? If Giggsy’s cross had been heading in then I reckon Ronaldo would have put it in anyway. It felt like it was a big night for him in his career, scoring two in such a big game. There was always this question of whether he could turn his performances and his abilities into goals, and probably for him it was a big night. They were the kind of goals you see him score all the time now: running in from wide areas, getting into the box like a striker. That run has become synonymous with him now, going from a winger’s position to a centre-forward’s position. He gets two goals. Off the back of doing it against Arsenal he probably got great confidence from that night, as a young lad. You need games like that, big performances where things just click.



Shortly after we went 3-2 up, I went off. Looking back, reports from the time said I was injured, but I can’t remember whether I was or not. I might have been, but then maybe it was a tactical substitution to see the game out. Sheasy probably got given exactly the same role as me. I wasn’t one to overthink getting taken off by Sir Alex Ferguson.



The manager had more work to do when Mikael Silvestre was sent off shortly afterwards for headbutting Freddie Ljungberg. Now, Mikael was a very calm guy, but it was a fierce atmosphere and these things can happen in the heat of the moment. Also, I think Roy spoke to all the lads before the game about something which always wound him up:



All your mates out there playing for them, they’re not your mates tonight. Shake hands with them after the game but I don’t want to see you shaking hands with them before the game.



Mikael would have been up for the game anyway, but I’m sure that was especially so after Roy had spoken to everyone. There were a lot of French lads in the Arsenal team, so maybe Mikael was extra pumped up to make his point.



Either way, off goes Mikael, then Wes comes on for Ronaldo. We were under pressure but comfortable. Then, something happens that’s even more surprising than Mikael losing his head.



Sheasy scores.



He goes through, not a great angle, but just chips it into the far corner with his left foot. Great goal. I’d never seen him do that before in training. Definitely the best game to save it for. Sheasy was good with his left foot. Playing so often at left-back meant that while it wasn’t his most natural foot, he was comfortable on his left side. All players can do certain aspects with their weaker foot, but Sheasy was higher up in that respect. Very capable with his left foot and the dink proved that.



As for why he did it… maybe he had seen Almunia come charging off his line for the second and third goals, maybe he saw him coming in the corner of his eye and it was pure instinct. Only he knows.



Same goes for his celebration. The shock of the whole thing just got to him and then he decides to celebrate. It’s a great moment. Everyone remembers the surprise on his face. I’ve no idea what was going through his head, other than total shock, but he was probably thinking things like:



What was I doing there in the first place?



Am I offside?



Does that count?



What’s just happened?



What’s happened is that Alex Ferguson got it right again. He takes me off at 3-2, brings on Sheasy and he scores the fourth! It was just a brilliant goal, a surreal celebration and the perfect way to end that game for us.