Across the 2022/23 season, the best way to describe Fabio Vieira was as a player who dealt in glimpses. With 19 appearances off the bench and 3 starts in the league, most of Vieira’s football came in the Europa League.
Across these showings we saw bits and pieces. The ability to strike a ball cleanly, the ability to weight the final ball. In the 2023/24 season, we shall see Fabio Vieira take the next step.
To this point, there have been a few different ideas about how best to use Vieira. Namely as a like-for-like Martin Odegaard swap on the right of midfield, as a right winger, and as the left-sided central midfielder.
It is in this last option that Fabio Vieira can cement his place in this Arsenal team. Indeed, it is here that his prolific start to the 2023/24 season has come from. In just 47 minutes of football Vieira has provided two assists and won a penalty.
What first jumps out is quite how good Vieira is when it comes to changing a game off the bench. The role of a substitute in football is a rather simple one, get on the pitch and change the game. Vieira clearly does this in terms of end product.
Where I’ve been more impressed this season is the directness with which he is playing his football. A common and sometimes fair criticism of his first season was that this is a player who can struggle to get into the game, that sometimes he just seemed to drift.
No such thing could be said about his cameos so far, namely the Fulham game. Coming on with Arsenal 1-0 down it was striking how much he demanded the ball, driving the team forward with passes and runs alike.
It is this profile of Vieira’s that makes him such an exciting player, and is a profile which Arsenal could look to move into their starting eleven. Compared to Arsenal’s other midfielders, Fabio Vieira is a much more direct creator. Since his arrival at the club only Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossard have more assists than him.
The reason for this is quite simply his final ball. Time and time again Vieira has shown that he can put the ball exactly where it needs to be in the final third. Take Gabriel Jesus’ goal against Manchester United for example, Vieira plays the ball first time perfectly into space. No fluke, it was highly reminiscent of his pass to Gabriel Martinelli for the fourth goal at Villa Park.
Time and time again Arsenal find teams coming to the Emirates and playing a low, settled block. The current idea in midfield is to use Kai Havertz as something of a secondary striker, loitering in space he can find. As of yet, this has not translated into goals.
With Fabio Vieira, Arsenal have an alternative approach available. Playing Vieira as the left 8 means that Arsenal offer a quality threat with ball at feet on both sides of midfield, and would allow for him to use his pass selection to break down defences.
On top of that, I would expect to see Vieira offer a modest goal threat if given a sustained run in this position. His goal at Brentford last season was the mark of a player with clear ballstriking aptitude. If given the ball in attacking areas, Vieira will start scoring them too.
With the international break giving Premier League teams pause for thought, perhaps Arsenal could use their return as a chance to rebalance their midfield. Fabio Vieira has all the hallmarks of a player ready to explode, he just needs to be given the chance.
