Vieira's pledge to Gunners

'As far as me staying at Arsenal, the club knows the truth, the boss knows the truth, Mr Dein (the club's vice-chairman) knows the truth.

'I don't want to leave at all. It is only you people saying that. I have two more years left on my Arsenal contract and I show the fans on the pitch how much I love the club and that I will stay here.

'This is where I want to be. This is the start of what we can achieve together,' said Vieira conclusively.

'We must start now to build something for the future because nobody wants to go another three years without winning anything. When we won the Double in 1998 that was maybe the end of an era, and since then we have built a new club.

'I believe we now have the team to win the European Cup. We just need to take our away form in the Premier League into the Champions League.'

More immediately, of course, Vieira and Thierry Henry take their talents to the World Cup in Japan and Korea.

Vieira admitted to feeling weary but said: 'It is tiring because it is one of the best leagues in the world. But look how exciting it is.'

Not much doubt about Vieira's loyalties there, but that seems to extend through the team.

Henry, scorer of two goals against Everton on Saturday, was clearly thinking more of creating a scoring chance for Francis Jeffers against his old club Everton than of making sure the Golden Boot finished on his mantelpiece.

In the event, he achieved both objectives.

'The important thing for me was always winning the League, even if I wasn't scoring the goals,' said Henry. 'You have to give credit to my team- mates. Dennis Bergkamp could have scored today but he waited so I could put the ball in an empty net.

'Without my partner, I couldn't do anything. When you play with a tremendous player like that, you just have to finish the job.'

And so the mutual admiration went on well into the early summer evening with just one or two players taking a nostalgic walk across the pitch. Lee Dixon is gone, Tony Adams, it seems, is going and Martin Keown could be getting one final payday with Bobby Robson's Newcastle. The collective age of those players is almost 110.

But Wenger has alternatives in mind. A great club never stands still and the veteran trio will be another link broken with the old Arsenal defence of former manager George Graham.

' We will miss them,' said Bergkamp. 'They stand for English football, for the back four that became famous throughout Europe.

'We will miss them, too, because they taught the young players so much.

'They also knew how to handle the end of the season because they had been there before. They stay calm and they talk, and they have been around at the right moments.' As Everton discovered, even on a day of celebration, Arsenal found the necessary concentration to triumph.

They made it 13 straight League wins to finish the season with a massive 87 points, earning a sevenpoint lead over second-placed Liverpool and ending a further three ahead of Manchester United.

Goodison Park manager David Moyes has much ground to make up on Merseyside.

Wenger now turns his attention to the market place, where he has always - with one or two exceptions - bought wisely and well in the past.