The duo started a combined 63 Premier League matches in the 1997\/98 season as Arsene Wenger’s side pipped Manchester United thanks to a sensational second half of the season.<\/p>\n
The French midfielders also started the FA Cup final too, walking out at the old Wembley as we downed Newcastle United 2-0 to clinch our famous double.<\/p>\n
But the pair had under a month to start preparing for a home World Cup, and with a first group game against South Africa kicking off on June 12, it was a tight turnaround.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter winning the double with Arsenal, it took me a while to switch off from the league season and focus my thoughts on the World Cup,” Patrick told Spurling in 2006.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany French people live in multicultural communities. So many of us in \u201898 came from different backgrounds. As Arsenal supporters never tired of telling me, my roots were in Senegal.”<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the season we had with Arsenal, you\u2019re just flying. You want the games to keep coming. It was a remarkable summer,” Emmanuel added.<\/p>\n
And the midfielder wasn’t wrong; the games kept on coming as he started in the wins over South Africa and Denmark in the group stages, netting in the latter as part of a 2-1 victory. Patrick also had his part to play, lining-up alongside Emmanuel versus the Danes to help France top the group.<\/p>\n Knockout wins over Paraguay, Italy and Croatia followed for Les Bleus, with Petit starting all three, to set up a showdown with defending World Cup champs Brazil at the Stade de France, in Paris.<\/p>\n Two goals from Zinedine Zidane set France on their way, before a moment of history as Vieira set up Petit in stoppage time for the final act of a memorable World Cup.<\/p>\n “Winning it reaffirmed the best of multicultural France and elevated us to heroes. It was a childhood dream,” Patrick recalled. “Setting up Manu for the final goal was a dream come true after the season we had at Arsenal. I\u2019m so glad it didn\u2019t go the other side of the post!”<\/p>\n “Winning it like that, at home, elevated French football to a new level,” Manu added.<\/p>\n \u201cPatrick and I were in sync on the pitch. It was a beautiful moment (when he put me in). It was for France and maybe a little bit for Arsenal too.”<\/p>\n The World Cup, off the back of a historic double, is an achievement that hasn’t been replicated by our players since.<\/p>\n People flooded onto the streets of Paris and beyond as the outpouring of joy unfolded across the nation.<\/p>\n Vieira said: \u201cSeeing the Eiffel Tower and the Champs \u00c9lys\u00e9es lit up in French colours was beyond our wildest dreams. It was then that it struck me what I\u2019d achieved in just a few months with Arsenal and France.\u201d<\/p>\n Petit added: \u201cFrance wasn\u2019t regarded as a naturally big football country until then. Not like a Brazil or an Argentina or an Italy. It\u2019s hard to compare the emotion and adrenaline rush with scoring in that kind of game.”<\/p>\n And the national newspaper headline back in England? Petit certainly took notice.<\/p>\n “That headline in the Mirror was it? ‘Arsenal win the World Cup.\u2019 We were so proud, Patrick and me.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n Copyright 2026 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s July 13, 1998, and the front page of the Daily Mirror is adorned with the headline “Arsenal win the World Cup”. Rewinding slightly to May 1998 and after clinching … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} Who was the first Arsenal player at a World Cup? <\/span>
\n <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n