Arsenal: £34m star now 'ready to stake claim' at the Emirates | OneFootball

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·19 March 2023

Arsenal: £34m star now 'ready to stake claim' at the Emirates

Article image:Arsenal: £34m star now 'ready to stake claim' at the Emirates

Arsenal midfielder Fábio Vieira is ready to step up in the Gunners' run-in, says journalist Pete O'Rourke.

His team-mate Reiss Nelson managed to make a huge impact for Mikel Arteta's side earlier this month after scoring the winner against Bournemouth, and O'Rourke thinks Vieira, who's been on the fringes like the 23-year-old this season, can do something similar.


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Arsenal news — Fábio Vieira

Arteta recently admitted that Vieira deserves more minutes. As per Transfermarkt, the Portugal U21 international hasn't even made five starts in the Premier League yet.

"I’m really happy with him," the Spaniard said (via Daily Mirror) after the first leg of Arsenal's Europa League last-16 tie against Sporting Lisbon. "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 a 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."

What has Pete O'Rourke said about Fábio Vieira and Arsenal?

O'Rourke has been impressed with what he's seen from Vieira when he's played and is confident that he can be an asset to Arsenal during their run-in.

Speaking to GIVEMESPORT, the journalist said: "I think Arsenal are going to have to have players step up and do something in case it's not working in games. We've seen it already with Reiss Nelson coming off the bench to massive impact, and I'm sure Fábio Vieira might have that opportunity as well at some point.

"He's mainly been restricted to games in the Europa League, but I think if he gets his chance in the Premier League, I'm sure he will take it. He hasn't let Arsenal down whenever he has played. He's obviously found it hard to break into an Arsenal starting XI that's been so consistent this season and had no injury problems, but I think if they do or were to lose a few players to injury in this run-in, Vieira is ready to step up and stake a claim and do his part for them."

Why doesn't Fábio Vieira have more starts under his belt?

As O'Rourke touched on, Arsenal have quite a settled team right now. And with it doing so well, there's obviously no reason for Arteta to make changes.

As a result, Vieira, who arrived at the Emirates from Porto in a £34m deal last summer, as reported by Sky Sports, hasn't had too many opportunities in the Premier League.

The same, of course, also applies to Nelson. But as the winger showed against Bournemouth, Arsenal's fringe players still have a role to play in this season's title race.

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