Patrick Vieira admits the one thing that held Arsenal back under Arsene Wenger

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Patrick Vieira was Wenger’s first marquee signing for Arsenal, arriving from AC Milan for £3.5million in 1996.

Over nine seasons in north London, Vieira became one of the most dominant box-to-box midfielders English football has seen.

He captained the side from 2002 until his departure in 2005, lifting four FA Cups and three league titles, including the unforgettable Invincible season of 2003/04.

Remarkably, he was named in the PFA Team of the Year for six consecutive years, and is even Thierry Henry’s favourite ever teammate.

If Patrick Vieira isn’t Arsenal’s greatest EVER captain, then who is?

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For all that success, though, Vieira believes Arsenal could have won even more.

Patrick Vieira jokes ‘it was Wenger’s fault’ Arsenal never won more

Speaking on The Rest Is Football on Netflix, Vieira looked back at his time at Arsenal.

“The bad side of it is that we had such a strong team, but we never won the league back to back, we never won the Champions League, and I think [Arsene Wenger] was a bit — a lack of demanding on us, even more.”

Joe Cole jumped in jokingly. “So it’s Wenger’s fault?”

“It’s Wenger’s fault, yeah, with the squad we had,” Vieira said, half joking, then directed back at the former Chelsea midfielder, “You worked under Jose Mourinho. I think he’s more demanding on his players individually and collectively, but Arsene didn’t have that on him.

“Mourinho, if you don’t perform, you have a good chance of being on the bench. The pressure was different.”

Vieira left at the end of the 2004/05 season, so he was not there for the eventual Champions League final defeat to Barcelona the following year.

For whatever reason, Europe never quite came together for that team, despite the dominant success domestically.

Vieira has praised current manager Mikel Arteta’s approach in recent times.

He recently credited Arteta’s willingness to move on big names for transforming Arsenal’s culture, calling the Spaniard a “great manager”.

Perhaps, that sort of demanding and ruthless decision-making, that willingness to hold players accountable, is what Vieira felt was missing under Wenger.