Is This Arsenal's Greatest XI?

CM. Patrick Vieira

For all the beautiful football Arsenal have played throughout recent years, there's always been one particular critique that's been used to describe the team and it's that the Gunners are a little bit 'soft in the middle'. For new Arsenal fans, this has probably always been the case but it wasn't always like that. In fact, once upon a time the team had a midfield general and his name was Patrick Vieira.

It's been close to a decade since he left the club to go to Serie A giants Juventus, but he certainly had his best years while playing at Highbury. The great thing about Vieira was his versatility. If teams fancied themselves a little bit and figured they could defeat Arsenal in a true game of footie then he had the ability to control the middle of the park with good technical play. However, if it was a war teams wanted to get in, then Vieira was more than willing to get in a battle to prove that he and his team were no pushovers. These were the qualities that epitomised the Invincibles team Vieira captained in the 2003-04 season.

They say that no player is irreplaceable, that if they leave then someone will take their place and do their job. However, Vieira leaving left a gap in the Arsenal midfield that even after nearly 10 years they've still never really been able to fill.