The Norwegian Club's Head of Security, Hallgeir Stokken, confirms that an argument beteween two of the players turned into a physical confrontation.

"I have also been told that two other players had to separate them", Stokken says.

The episode is said to have taken place as the players' bus was parked by Lerkendal stadium after the game. Thierry Henry and Robert Pires were interviewed by the press when several fans saw two players inside the bus have a slanging match.

After a while they started fighting. Security guards and a couple of policemen ran into the bus to separate them, assisted by other players. After that, one of the fighting players had to sit in the back of the bus, while the other was ordered in one of the front seats.

Nothing is clear about the reason for the fight, nor is it known which players were fighting.

Rupe adds...
The story has since been picked up by the usual media sources. It appears that the players involved were Vieira and Lauren. There are suggestions that the problems started when "Vieira lambasted Lauren for failing to stop Rosenborg winger Oyvind Storflor after his colleague Roar Strand rammed home on the 52nd minute" (see Eurosport) and that it took 2 other players plus 2 motorcyclists to calm things down (see TeamTalk). Arsenal are said to be "mystified". So are we, and while we'd like to make it clear that we're not saying we believe all these details, it does seem clear that something happened.

With luck, the upshot will be media speculation about Arsenal's "happy family" bubble having burst, leading to the kind of backs-against-the-wall solidarity that often wins trophies for the club. It'll be interesting to see if Arsenal respond. I suspect that there will be nothing official but then some comments from the players concerned saying that it's all a storm in a teacup.

Also, thanks to those who pointed out that the match was on Wednesday, not Tuesday. "Tuesday" appeared in the original VG (Norwegian tabloid) report (featuring Oliver Reed as Hallgeir Stokken), which is how it found its way into Jon's piece above. It'd be nice to think that the rest of the reporting from the Norwegian press on this matter has been equally accurate, but eye-witness accounts on Norwegian Arsenal fans online forums confirm that something did indeed happen, though stopping short of actual physical contact between the players.