2006 a leap year for finally settled Keane

Andrew Fifield talks to Robbie Keane ahead of today's crucial clash with north London rivals Arsenal

Robbie Keane has just been asked whether he plays the banjo. Suddenly, the easy smile and twinkling eyes which are just as much his trademark as the clumsy, tumbling celebration he uses to mark a goal vanish, replaced by a look of utter bemusement. "Banjo?" he wondered aloud. "I play the guitar a bit . . . but banjo?" It takes banjos to faze Robbie Keane: he is certainly not perturbed by anything in football right now.

Ever since early March, when the Dubliner was appointed Ireland captain and signed a new contract at Tottenham Hotspur, he has been irresistible. Eight goals in his last nine games have transformed a season which had been drifting into his best ever in English football. Life could hardly be better.

Or could it? Today, Tottenham will make their last ever trip to Highbury to face Arsenal. The two clubs are separated by four-and-a-half miles in north London and one place in the Premiership. Victory will see Spurs extend their lead over their rivals to seven points and reduce Arsenal's dreams of a top-four finish to rubble long before the bulldozers move in on Avenell Road.

Defeat, and Arsenal - who have one game in hand - will not be breathing down Spurs' necks so much as yanking at their shirt-collars.

"As it gets closer, and you hear the fans talk about it, you realise how big a game it is," admitted Keane. "Really, the key for us is not to lose. If we get a point, that's a good result and we'd be grateful for that. But if we play the way in which we've been playing, I think we have a great chance of winning it. We have to be positive."

It all appears so simple. Tottenham eased into the top four on December 3rd with a 3-2 win over Sunderland and they have been immovable ever since. But now the pressure is on: Spurs are hardly stuttering but defeat against Manchester United on Easter Monday wrested away control of their destiny. There will be no hiding places at Highbury.

"People have been saying that we will slip up for months," Keane said with a shrug. "But we're still there with three games to go. I've heard it said that we're this season's equivalent of Everton but I don't go along with that. I'm sure people in Spain said the same about Villarreal, and look where they are now.

"The fact is that even if we go into the Uefa Cup, that's still a great achievement: it would be an improvement on last season, which was our target last summer. But, of course, having come so far, and with the position we're in, it would be gutting to miss out.

"All players should want to play in the Champions League, and we feel that we 're ready for it. We're a young squad but the exciting thing is that our players will get better as they become more mature. Being involved in the Champions League will help that."

It would also be a fresh experience for Keane himself. Oddly, for someone who has led such a famously nomadic career, from Wolves, to Leeds, to Tottenham, with brief stopping-points at Inter Milan and Coventry, Keane has had just one fleeting taste of Champions League football. It came with Inter, but it was not enjoyable. Keane cannot remember the opponents - they were Helsingborgs - but he recalls the result well enough.

Inter lost the first leg away and drew the return 0-0, an appropriately flat start to an unhappy year at the San Siro.

It has taken five years for Keane to fully recover. In the intervening seasons, he has only flirted with regular first-team football and this season began in a similar vein as the 25-year-old found himself relegated to third-choice behind Jermain Defoe and Mido. There were rumours of unhappiness and of interest from Everton, never confirmed, but that all changed in March.

Then, Martin Jol persuaded Keane to sign a new four-year contract and promptly reinstated him to the starting line-up. That coincided with his appointment as Ireland captain by Steve Staunton, an event he marked with typical style, scoring in a 3-0 win over Sweden. Now he is happier than ever.

"I'm enjoying myself because I'm playing regularly," he said. "When I'm on the bench I get miserable. But I feel as fit now as I've ever felt and there's a great buzz around this place.

"This has been the most enjoyable season of my career. If you had told me last year that in 12 months I would be captain of my country and trying to help Spurs into the Champions League, I wouldn't have believed you.

"To be made skipper of your country is every kid's dream and I could never have imagined having that honour at 25. Mind you, I would never have expected to be Ireland record goal-scorer at 25 either. I don't really want the year to end: I'm very happy."

Yet Spurs' season still teeters on the brink of anti-climax. If they hurdle the considerable obstacle of Arsenal today and make fourth spot their own, there is still the nightmare scenario of Arsene Wenger's side winning the Champions League and shunting Tottenham into the Uefa Cup. It is enough to make even the most optimistic Hotspur shudder: but not Keane.

"You can't think about it - if you did you'd go crazy," he laughed. "But do we want them to lose? That's a silly question. No disrespect, to Arsenal but we're out for ourselves. Come on Villarreal."