By Chris Harris

From the moment he stepped onto the Highbury turf, you sensed that Patrick Vieira would be something special.

"He's a monster!" exclaimed one supporter behind me in the North Bank when the Frenchman emerged from the bench on that September night in 1996. Of course, it was meant as a compliment. At 6ft 4ins, Vieira's physical stature was as imposing as his powerhouse performances.

At that point Arsenal were trailing to Sheffield Wednesday. A little over an hour later, they had cruised to a 4-1 win and Vieira had already made his mark.

Nine years on, Arsenal fans will look back and rightly judge the signing of Vieira as the first of Arsène Wenger's many masterstrokes as manager.

Plucked from relative obscurity among Milan's reserves, the 20-year-old became the hub of Arsenal's midfield and has been pivotal to the success of Wenger's era.

Now he has gone, but Vieira has left Arsenal's followers with a treasure chest of memories.

His partnership with Emmanuel Petit, so influential to the Double of 1998, even spawned the headline 'Arsenal win the World Cup' as the duo inspired France that summer.

Then there were the goals which, although rare, were so often memorable, from the thunderbolts against Manchester United and Newcastle early in his career to the picture-perfect effort as Arsenal clinched the title at Tottenham last year.

More than anything though, Vieira will be remembered for being Arsenal's driving force.

He developed into the world's finest holding midfielder at Highbury, a remarkable athlete who could win the ball, distribute it effectively and, as Sir Alex Ferguson himself admitted, 'cover the ground like nothing on earth'.

There are few more graceful sights in football than Vieira holding off an opponent in a congested midfield before flicking the ball over his head and racing away downfield to spark another Arsenal attack. He is simply a class act.

When Tony Adams called time on his own glittering career in the summer of 2002, Vieira was handed the captain's armband. He thrived, fostering the strongest of bonds within the dressing room and leading by example.

And with authority came maturity. Vieira, sometimes guilty of petulance early in his Arsenal career, deserves the utmost credit for curbing his temper and keeping his head while others lose theirs.

When Vieira fired in the winning penalty at the FA Cup Final in May, the farthest thing from the Arsenal fans' minds was the prospect that it would his last kick for the Club.

Everyone connected with Arsenal will be sad to see him go. But how fitting that the final image of Vieira in a red and white shirt shows him lifting a trophy in front of the fans to whom he brought so much pleasure.