Fabio Vieira is not injured and will be available for Arsenal against Bodo/Glimt in the Europa League this evening despite a training knock.
The Gunners return to Europa League action tonight as they host Bodo/Glimt at the Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal have only played one Europa League game so far this season, beating FC Zurich 2-1 in September.
The passing of Queen Elizabeth II meant the clash with PSV Eindhoven was cancelled, so Arsenal’s Europa League campaign has been on the back burner for almost a month.
Mikel Arteta’s men must now be focused on the task at hand though and Norwegian outfit Bodo/Glimt will be a potential banana skin.
Fabio Vieira is not injured
This game presents Arsenal with a chance to rotate their side and possibly bring in some players who are usually on the bench.
We’re thinking the likes of Rob Holding, Albert Sambi Lokonga and Eddie Nketiah, but also Fabio Vieira.
The Portuguese playmaker joined from Porto over the summer but was ruled out through injury in pre-season.
Signed as cover and competition for Martin Odegaard, Vieira was given a chance to shine against Brentford last month, when Odegaard was ruled out.
Vieira stepped up with a superb goal, helping Arsenal to a 3-0 victory.
Odegaard’s return meant Vieira dropped straight back out of the side though and he was only on the bench against Tottenham.
Many expect Vieira to start tonight but there have been concerns about an injury possibly picked up in training on Wednesday.
Football Daily posted a video from Arsenal’s training session and at around 45 seconds in, there is a scramble for the ball which Vieira walks away from limping.
That raised concerns that Vieira had picked up a knock that could potentially rule him out against Bodo/Glimt.
Goal’s Arsenal correspondent Charles Watts claims this is not the case though and that Vieira joined in training again after limping and is good to go for tonight’s game.
“I know there’s some stories doing the rounds today that he limped out of training,” said Watts. “As always, before Europa League games cameras and stuff are allowed in down the training ground from various media outlets, they are allowed to watch 15 minutes and film 15 minutes of the training session, and during those 15 minutes I think he took a bit of a kick in one of the drills that they were doing and he kind of limped away a little bit.”
“I’ve seen some stories that he limped out of Arsenal training and that’s not the case, he joined in again. So nothing to worry about when it comes to Vieira, so he’s going to be exciting to watch,” he added.
Hailed as ‘special’ by former Arsenal striker Kevin Campbell, Vieira is being backed for a huge future and we’re expecting him to start against Bodo/Glimt tonight in another chance to show his quality.
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