The pressure is off at Arsenal. Yesterday's training session was open to the press, which does not happen when trophies are at stake. For Patrick Vieira, however, a worthwhile challenge still exists. "We've won the title," Arsenal's captain said after the session was over, "but in our minds we've found a new target. We have something that can drive us to the end of the season. And we've played so well this season that to do it would be fantastic."
Two autumns ago Arsène Wenger unwisely mused about the possibility of seeing his team go through the season unbeaten. Nine months later he was sorting through the wreckage. Now, however, his squad is within sight of matching the achievement of the Preston North End side of 1888-89, who went through the league campaign without tasting defeat and became known as the Invincibles.
Tiring as they come to the close of a long campaign, and with Euro 2004 looming for many of them, Arsenal's squad might be forgiven for taking their remaining domestic fixtures lightly. But Vieira, nearing the end of his eighth season at Highbury, emphatically dismisses suggestions that he and his colleagues will be saving themselves for Portugal.
"You can't do that," he said. "It's when you try to save yourself that you get injured. And it's not my temperament. We have four games in which we can achieve something special."
It would, he suggested, be a just reward for the kind of football the team have been playing, a vision of pace and imagination that has banished the Arsenal stereotype.
"We've been playing better football every year because we know each other really well now," he said. "And something like that, we have to keep it because it's really fragile. You can lose it really quickly."
The secret, he said, is a collective unselfishness. "We know that we need each other to win and to perform well. Thierry [Henry] is a fantastic example. He's scored so many goals but he gives assists as well. He plays for the shirt. I see him coming back to make tackles. Dennis [Bergkamp], too. We know that if someone is in a better position than you to score, you have to give him the ball. Most of the big teams don't have that, and that's why we're strong.
"But it's also fragile because in football things can go really quickly. You can lose it just like that. It just takes one person to be a little bit selfish, and the whole machine won't function. So we talk to each other. If someone isn't giving the ball early, we tell him. But we keep it between us. We keep it in the dressing room. We're not afraid to talk to each other and there's a big respect between us, and that's why we enjoy ourselves and our life together."
In Easter week, however, they seemed to have be in the process of losing it. With a treble in their sights, they were knocked out of the FA Cup and the Champions League by Manchester United and Chelsea in the space of four days. Momentarily it looked as though they were heading for the sort of spectacular meltdown that cost them the championship a year earlier. Within days, a home win over Liverpool and a goalless draw at Newcastle had put them back on track.
"We knew it would be a difficult week because we were playing the four best teams in the country," Vieira recalled. "We didn't have a good start. But we were so close. Against Manchester United we created chances in the first half, and if we'd scored I think the game would have been completely different. Against Chelsea we played fantastic football in the first half, unbelievable football, and we created some more chances that we didn't take. In the second half we were physically a bit tired, Chelsea had more fresh players, and they played really well, one of the best games I've seen from them. After that, we wanted to show everybody our character. The Premiership was the only target left and we responded really well."
The Champions League, however, is their real target, and so far their record under Wenger is unimpressive. To describe their weakness in Europe, Vieira reached for a French term. "Where we need to improve," he said, "is that we need more rigueur ." Meaning discipline? "Not really." Tactical discipline, then? "Maybe. We can play so well. We can fly. We can beat anyone when we play like that. But on the other hand we have to recognise that, as a team, we must get stronger defensively. We like to go forward, we like to play, and you can't do that every time."
Rigueur in the sense of discipline is where his own record has been transformed this season. A single dismissal, following his spat with Ruud van Nistelrooy at Old Trafford last September, has been accompanied by so few cautions that he could not even remember the last one.
"I realised that when you make a mistake you have to change something. That shows how intelligent you can be. I try to see it in a different way now. I understand that when people try to wind me up, it's because I'm playing well. Whenever I had trouble, it was because I reacted to something. Now I'm much more focused on the game and on doing my job. My commitment and my desire to win the ball or make a tackle, that will never change. But you grow up. I'm not 20 any more."
He is, in fact, 27, and believes himself to be entering his prime. "I've improved a lot as a player in the last few years," he said. "Between 26 and 30 is the best time for someone in my position because that's when you get maturity. So I believe that the next two or three seasons will be fantastic for me."
This spring, unusually, there has been no speculation about a move to Real Madrid. "Of course it's better when there isn't speculation, but I don't mind because I've always had an understanding with this club. They knew what I wanted to do. Everything was clear between us."
But had he watched the collapse of Real's season and thought to himself, "I could have done a job there"?
"Not at all. I'm not happy to see them doing so badly because I have friends there and I want them to do well. But on the other hand I'm so happy because Claude Makelele, who plays in the same position I do, left the club, and it just shows how important he was. You can buy any strikers you want, but this position is important and you need someone there who can do the job."
Meanwhile, which side will he be rooting for next Wednesday, when Chelsea try to claw back a 3-1 deficit against Monaco in a match most people had expected to feature Arsenal and Real Madrid? "I have friends in both teams. At Monaco, Edouard Cissé is a good friend, and of course there are Makelele and Marcel Desailly with Chelsea. So I won't be supporting anybody. I'll be sitting at home and hoping to watch a good game. But given how strong Chelsea are at home, I believe they can do it."
So why, in the end, do he and Henry, generally believed to be the best players in the world in their positions, stay with a club which is neither the richest nor the most successful in Europe?
"Because I look at the players here" - he glanced around the dining room at Arsenal's high-tech training centre - "and I know we can achieve our dreams. It's true for Thierry and me and everybody else here that we want to play for a big club. With the new stadium and the young players coming in, we know Arsenal can achieve that. I've been here when we took a bus to training and a bus back to the hotel to have a shower. Now we have all this and we've seen the club improve year by year. This club has the potential to be one of the biggest in Europe. You'll see."
