Fabio Vieira is giving Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta "big headaches" when selecting his team, he has admitted.
Fabio Vieira cost about £35 million to move from Porto to Arsenal last summer, but he has had a difficult time fitting in this year.
In contrast, Vieira has started off the bench for Arsenal in their last four games and was a key component of his team's fourth goal during their 4-2 win over Aston Villa last weekend.
In order to set up Gabriel Martinelli for an open goal, the 22-year-old showed restraint by making a pass that was as accurate as a needle's eye.
And because Martinelli, Bukayo Saka, and Martin Odegaard are currently placed above him in the hierarchy, his expanding influence on games is starting to give Arteta "big headaches.".
When questioned about Vieira's growing presence on the team, Arteta responded as follows: “[He’s] very close. He is starting to give me big headaches because I see him every single day and I know what he is capable of doing.
“A tremendous player who now understands exactly what we want. I think physically he is in the condition to compete at the right level in this league and he brings qualities that we don’t have in the squad. I’m very eager to give him more.
When asked if he believed the midfielder had the physicality necessary to compete in the Premier League, Arteta responded: “If he needs to compete with 30 balls in the air against certain players in the league I think he’s going to lose 28.
“But if we give him the ball in the right spaces and ask him to do some defensive work that he can do – and we put him in front of goal the amount of times that we want to, I think he will do really well in this league.
“But if we do the opposite, I don’t think he’s going to do well in this league,” the Spaniard joked.
This weekend, Arsenal will travel to the King Power Stadium to face Leicester City in the Premier League.
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