Arsenal vs Juventus - Highbury, London - Tuesday 28th March 2006

Patrick Vieira returns to Highbury! The season after leaving, it really was totally inevitable that we would draw Juventus at some point, just because Paddy would play against us. Annoyingly, he has spent the whole season so far doing what we know he is capable of, playing consistently like a world class player. Sadly, he didn't do that for his last 2 seasons at Arsenal, and probably wouldn't be doing it were he still with us.

Still, he was Arsenals captain, played for us for 9 years, and for many years to come, new Arsenal signings will be assessed as to whether or not they are the "new Vieira" - that in itself is some tribute to the man. I was not wholly confident going into this first leg, partly because of the whole "Vieira returns to haunt Arsenal" factor, but also because Juventus are absolute masters at getting the results they need.

In the end, the lack of confidence wasn't justified. Literally the whole Arsenal team played extremely well, and we were also helped by the fact that the runaway Italian league leaders played terribly badly. Vieira himself summed Juventus up, with a performance I remembered only too well from his last few seasons at Highbury - no real commitment, very half-hearted, booked for a silly tackle, and left on his arse by an 18-year-old half his size. Fabregas on the other hand was incredible, with Toure and Reyes also more than a match for Juventus.

The only possible complaint was that Arsenal maybe could and should have scored a third, but even that is not going to take the gloss off a magnificent team performance. Juventus will be nowhere near as bad as that in the return leg, and in fact still have a great chance of going through, but Arsenal looked incredible in every department tonight, ripping the away team to shreds.

Papers the following day made much of the "old vs new" battle in midfield in this game, and Cesc Fabregas was the undoubted winner. Vieira's booking means he is suspended for the second leg next week, so his decline is complete - played out of the game by Fabregas and the rest, then needlessly booked out of the return. He used to be a world class midfielder, you know.

Fingers crossed for Turin next week, but Arsenal should be heading for the semi finals.