MY ACCOUNT
The Europa League is providing Fabio Vieira with a platform to shine for Arsenal.
Though the Portuguese playmaker has found starts hard to come by in their Premier League title bid, Mikel Arteta has trusted him in cup competitions.
Having made crucial contributions in recent weeks, the 22-year-old will hope to persuade his manager to give him further opportunities.
Ahead of the second leg of Arsenal’s Europa League last-16 clash against Sporting, we put Vieira under the spotlight.
Size issues
Arsenal signed Vieira from Porto last summer for an initial £30million. Making his debut for the Portuguese giants in 2020, he quickly established himself as one of Europe’s top prospects.
Many of the first reactions to the signing focussed on his size, or lack thereof. Just 5ft 7in tall and a naturally slight figure, questions were raised as to whether he could cope physically in the Premier League.
Arriving injured, Vieira would not make his debut for Arsenal until September when he came on as a substitute in the away defeat to Manchester United. His first start came a few days later in the Europa League against FC Zurich.
He has started all seven of the Gunners’ games in the competition, scoring once and assisting twice.
The most recent assist came in the 2-2 draw at Sporting Lisbon in the first leg when William Saliba headed home Vieira’s corner. Arteta will hope he can make a similar contribution in the return.
Premier League minutes
Arsenal have also started Vieira in all of their domestic cup matches. Though two of these three games resulted in defeat, he created two of the goals in the 3-0 Carabao Cup win against Oxford.
Premier League minutes have been more difficult to come by. This is despite the fact that he scored a brilliant long-range strike when given his first start against Brentford in September.
Arteta had him back on the bench for the next game against Tottenham and only two of his 17 Premier League appearances have seen him in the starting line-up.
Vieira’s chances have naturally been reduced by the fact that Arsenal are leading the title race. It is hard for the manager to experiment with his team selection when the regular starters keep delivering.
The playmaker also needs to gradually adapt to the physical challenges of the Premier League. If you look back to a similarly sized central midfielder in Luka Modric, the Ballon d’Or winner was not an immediate success in England.
Arteta verdict
Arteta discussed Vieira’s performances and lack of playing time after the away leg of the Sporting tie.
The Arsenal boss said: “I’m really happy with him. I think he deserves more minutes than he’s had, especially in the last two months.
“Obviously he had a difficult start because he was injured for two months after surgery and wasn’t at the level that we wanted.
“But you saw tonight that he was probably our most dangerous player. He was always making things happen. He’s a player that I absolutely love.”
It was an assessment that bodes well for Vieira’s future at a club looking to enter a new area of success.
Opportunity knocks
Overall it has been a relatively successful debut season for Vieira and it has the potential to get even better.
Arteta’s comments and the fact that he started him in the recent 3-2 win over Bournemouth, suggest that he will not be scared to call upon the midfielder, should the need arise.
The attention has been drawn to Arsenal’s chances of winning the Premier League but they also have a great opportunity in the Europa League, in which Vieira has been a regular.
Competition is only likely to get fiercer at a club who have been linked with the summer acquisitions of midfielders as accomplished as Declan Rice.
Yet everything points to Arteta having enough faith in Vieira, that the youngster will continue to be given the opportunities to prove that he can take flight at the Emirates.
