Vieira: Today’s Gunners play better football than side I played in

FORMER captain Patrick Vieira believes the current Arsenal side are playing better football than when he was at the Gunners.

The north London club are top of the Barclays Premier League following last Sunday’s 1-0 victory over Chelsea, while a second-string team beat Blackburn 3-2 in midweek to advance to the semi-finals of the Carling Cup. It was feared Arsene Wenger’s squad would suffer following the loss first of Vieira, to Juventus in July 2005, and then talismanic striker Thierry Henry, who moved to Barcelona last summer.

Vieira, who won three league titles and four FA Cups in his nine years at the Gunners from 1996 to 2005, is impressed with the way Wenger has moulded yet another superb footballing team.