THE tunnel, Highbury, February 1. Patrick Vieira exchanges a few choice words with Gary Neville. Roy Keane turns and says to the Arsenal captain: “By the way, if you were that good you’d be playing for Real Madrid.” The perfect riposte.

The best captains are great leaders, not just fine players. Keane showed that during the Highbury game and before it. Think of someone such as Martin Johnson in the World Cup-winning England rugby union team. You looked at him and you knew he would deal with the pressure, spur on his team-mates.

David Beckham is not a great captain. It is not sufficient to inspire your side with the power of your play; you need to lift them with the force of your personality. Right now Vieira is not a great player and certainly not a great captain.

Any Arsenal fan would admit that Vieira is not playing as well as he was 18 months ago. He’s doing OK — but he is only ticking along, doing just enough. You wonder how committed to the cause he is. How many captains win the league and seriously consider switching clubs? How much of an effect is that — and the Ashley Cole affair added to Edu’s desire to leave — having on the mental state of the champions?

Fredrik Ljungberg may have been out of position on Tuesday as Arsenal lost to a mediocre Bayern Munich, but that does not excuse his anonymous performance. Why wasn’t Vieira in his face, goading, urging, demanding more? Keane would have been, but at the moment I see Arsenal’s players waiting for something to happen rather than making it happen, and Vieira must take a share of the responsibility for that.

I played with Keane for Ireland and was impressed by his drive. He wouldn’t let anyone rest on their laurels. His legs may be faltering but his vocal cords get as much of an airing as ever. Why was Dennis Bergkamp allowed to stay at home? Keane would have told him: “You don’t like flying? Well, I don’t like losing. Get on the plane!”

One of Keane’s smartest moves is that he doesn’t get too close to anyone. There is a sense of detachment with his team-mates that means he can criticise without risking friendships. Would Vieira be prepared to have a go at Thierry Henry and run the chance of offending his close ally?

If Vieira is not the man to jolt the squad into action, who will? Arsène Wenger is a diplomat. He avoids confrontation and does not criticise his players, yet we know he can be fiery when rattled — look at the row with Sir Alex Ferguson. Perhaps some of that aggression needs to be redirected towards his team. Even so, the senior players should take responsibility. The Arsenal Double-winning team from 1970-71 locked Bertie Mee, the manager, out of the dressing-room while they dealt with their problems.

Sol Campbell was missing because of injury in Munich but I don’t think he’s a leader. He’s more of a Paul McGrath-type character: effective and passionate but quiet. Increasingly, Henry seems to think he is better than everyone else. He usually is, of course, but it cannot help the morale of his team-mates when he acts so exasperated if they fail to live up to his expectations — such as José Antonio Reyes on Tuesday. Petulance is the dark side of his greatness.

At their best, Arsenal are intelligent and cultured; at their worst, they are fragile and frustrated. Right now they remind me a little of the French national side, another team in which Vieira, Henry and Robert Pires achieved so much, then so little. Maybe Arsenal are spoilt. They act like their title and 49-game unbeaten run entitles them to more success. But it is in the past. With Arsenal, it seems that if they cannot be brilliant, they would rather not take part.

Sometimes you have to graft. Arsenal appear to find it easier to be excellent rather than merely good, but at present they do not have the personnel nor the confidence to be outstanding all the time. They need to recognise that and come to terms with their limitations, and Vieira needs to take a few — tough — lessons from the Keane school of captaincy.