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Fabio Vieira made put in a good shift in his first appearance for Arsenal as the under-21s beat Swansea City on Wednesday night.
THE LOWDOWN: AN ANXIOUS WAIT
Since joining Arsenal in a £34m move over the summer, Fabio Vieira is yet to feature for the club and even missed out on the pre-season activity due to a foot injury.
Likened to Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva for his creativity and versatility, Arsenal fans have been eager to see what the 22-year-old is all about and why the club coughed out that amount for a player who is not yet ‘established’.
Over the past few weeks, Vieira has stepped up his return from injury and was already training individually and being put to light drills. Only few days ago, he was spotted training with the rest of the first team at London Colney.
The wait is now over as Vieira fully marked his return from injury with a cameo for Arsenal’s U21s, in a game where they were 2-1 winners over Swansea.
THE LATEST: DECENT SHIFT
Vieira stepped up his recovery from a foot injury with 45 minutes, on a night when Emile Smith Rowe and Cedric Soares also got minutes in the tank. Mikel Arteta, Gabriel Martinelli, Per Mertesacker and club Chief Executive Officer Vinai Venkatesham were also in attendance.
Wearing the number 7 jersey, Vieira featured on the right flank and looked composed on the ball for most of the time.
Josh Thomas gave Arsenal U21s the lead after rounding keeper James Hillson to slide into an empty net before Joel Ideho showed great composure in the box to grab an equalizer for Swansea. Cedric then put Arsenal ahead with a fine free-kick before the visitors were reduced to 10 men before the break following a late Joe Thomas challenge on Lino Sousa.
After Vieira and Smith Rowe’s removal at half-time, the game looked rather flat but the Arsenal youngsters did just enough to keep their opponents quiet and hold on for the win and three points.
THE VERDICT: MUCH-NEEDED BOOST
With the Europa League set to begin in September, Arteta will need to bank on his squad depth and the triple return of Vieira, Smith-Rowe and Cedric will come as a much welcome addition.
With Vieira now fully fit and ready for selection, fans will be eager to see him make his Premier League bow and make an early impression, like the duo of Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus.
Arteta will be wary of rushing the Portuguese into action so we might see him slowly integrated into first team action. Either way, it is good news to see him fit and ready to play.
