Fábio Vieira has failed to cement a place at Arsenal since joining them from FC Porto in 2022 and returned to his former club on loan towards the end of last summer.
The attacking midfielder struggled with an injury initially and needed a few matches to get going. Last month, O Jogo reported Arsenal are attentive to his growth with the Dragons.
Vieira assisted Francisco Moura’s winner against SC Farense on February 16th. Since then, he’s assisted Samu Aghehowa’s opener in the Europa League 3-2 defeat to AS Roma and scored a goal in each of his past three league games [was suspended against Braga].
Thursday’s edition of A Bola says the Arsenal owned player has been ‘clearly on the rise’ in recent weeks.
He’s managed five goals and four assists for Porto this season and is two goals away from reaching his best tally of seven goals [and 16 assists] during the 2021/22 season. That helped him secure a move to Arsenal.
The Portugal international made his first team debut for Porto in October 2020 against Marítim, when José Gomes was managing the latter. A Bola contacted Gomes, who is currently at Al-Fateh, to know what he remembers about Vieira from his time as Porto’s assistant manager.
“We conceded a goal early on [scored by Jesús Corona] and we tried to at least equalise during the game,” he said.
“Fábio’s entry allowed Porto to have even more ability to possess the ball, because he is an intelligent player, who understands the game and its moments and who at that time, even though he was young, realised that.”
On his development, Gomes explained: “He was born for football. He has reading, speed in the way he interprets the movements of his teammates and opponents and then he has a fabulous left foot. He can solve the problems due to its quality. That’s what intelligent and technical players do, like him.”
Porto don’t have a purchase clause, and Vieira has to return to Arsenal after this season. Should he continue his development then Mikel Arteta will surely be encouraged to at least give him a try during pre-season.
