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Patrick Vieira during the Premier League match between Arsenal and Sheffield Wednesday at Highbury Stadium, London, September 1996.

Can you name the Arsenal XI from Patrick Vieira’s debut in 1996?

Patrick Vieira is unquestionably one of the best players in Arsenal’s history, but do you remember their line-up on his debut in 1996?

Vieira joined that summer from AC Milan for a fee of £3.5million and was named on the bench during their Premier League home match against Sheffield Wednesday in September.

Under the stewardship of Stewart Houston and Pat Rice – Arsene Wenger would take over as manager a month later – the Gunners hammered their opponents in a 4-1 victory, with a legendary striker helping himself to a hat-trick.

The result was even more impressive considering Wednesday would have gone top with a victory at Highbury and led at half-time.

Vieira made his bow as a first-half substitute and The Times, with the faintest of praise, labelled him as a “thinking man’s Carlton Palmer … who, at last, gives the Arsenal midfield some variety.”

One injured Arsenal player, watching the game from the stands, remembered thinking: “He was there and controlled the ball, and when you think he was going to lose the ball he would pass and put someone in.

“He was a different sort of player. He was one of the first modern midfield players. He was so, so dominating.”

Vieira would go on to make 406 Arsenal appearances, winning a multitude of trophies along the way, and we’d like you to name the starting XI from his first club appearance. The score to beat from our office is 02:21.

If you want another challenge after this, why not try and name Arsenal’s top goalscorer for every Premier League season?

If you haven’t already, sign up for a Planet Sport account to access hints for those tricky answers and to register your score on the leaderboard.

Good luck, and don’t forget to tweet us your score at @planetfutebol.


NEXT QUIZ: Can you name Arsene Wenger’s 30 most used players at Arsenal?