Ahead of Man City vs Arsenal an old rival almost returned to our screens as Micah Richards and Theo Walcott played with fire.

On Sky Sports, the pair were part of a stacked studio line-up for the game and were joined by Manchester United icon Roy Keane.

Keane and Vieira had some titanic tussles over the yearsGetty

And before the crunch Premier League clash they were all joined by Gunners icon Patrick Vieira on a video link from Chicago.

Quickly, though, ex-Man City star Richards attempted to reignite the feud he once had on-pitch with Keane as he jokingly goaded the Frenchman.

Richards said: “Patrick! Big Meeks here. How’s the atmosphere in Chicago? Are you missing us?

“I’ve got your mate (Keane) in the studio here with us. Why are you not here? Are you scared? Running scared? What’s happening?”

And swiftly he got a response.

“I can’t be in the same room that Roy Keane is, so it’s better being in Chicago,” Vieira Joked.

Richards added: “Who started this?”

Before Walcott chimed in: “He’s not kicked me yet but I want to know who kicked more, him or you, Patrick? Who started the famous debate, shall we say?”

And Vieira wasn’t going to shirk the fun scenario unfolding and he gave those back at the Eithad a big laugh.

He replied: “I think he was the one who started it because he was always scared of me and every time that he was facing me he was quite scared of the quality and the challenges I was giving him.”

Richards and Walcott were trying to rile Keane and VieiraSky Sports

Keane had been quietly watching the banter go on around him and finally chose the perfect moment to have his say.

“Patrick, you know I was never scared of you. You are kidding yourself,” he spoke with quiet authority.

And Walcott swiftly tried to change the subject, adding: “Patrick, I’m actually terrified of Roy right now, we’ve definitely stirred the pot.”

Keane and Vieira are now pretty pally compared to their playing days when they had a fierce battle spanning 12 matches in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

On one occasion between Arsenal and Manchester United, the pair almost battled in the tunnel.

“I could hear these footsteps behind me and Vieira shouting, ‘Neville! Neville! You’re not going to kick our players out on this pitch today,’” Neville recalled.

“Roy obviously turned back, heard him and started having a go at him. He (Vieira) sort of squirted his water bottle towards Roy, then all hell broke loose.”

“I just felt they were bullying Gary,” Keane later reflected in his book The Second Half. “I don’t think it was intimidation; it was bullying.”

He added: “I was there to do a job. ‘Win the game – get in and get out’. But it was a bit like the build-up to a boxing match – the weigh-in, the press conferences – when people forget that there’ll actually be a fight.

“I think football might lack that energy now, a bit; that tension. It was great. But years later people bring up the tunnel and they don’t remember the match that came after it.”