Mikel Arteta admits that he plans to give Fabio Vieira more time on the pitch

Fabio Vieira arrived at Arsenal with great expectations, but the young Portuguese still needs to show everything he is capable of and is fighting to gain more minutes on the field.

The Portuguese playmaker signed for the Gunners last summer in a £34m move from Porto. So far, he has made just 23 first-team appearances, and only 10 of those have been as a starter.

With injuries to Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny, it was thought that Vieira would finally get a chance, but the Gunners signed Jorginho from Chelsea, and he has earned first place in Arteta’s pecking order.

However, the Gunners boss admits that he has to give Vieira more minutes and that the player is capable of great things.

“He now understands exactly what we want and physically he is a condition to compete at the right level in this league. He brings qualities that we don’t have in the squad. Very eager to give him more [game time].”

“If he needs to compete for 30 balls in the air against certain players in this league, I think he is going to lose 28,” Arteta added. “But if we give him the ball in the right spaces, and if we ask him to do some defensive work he can do…

“If we put him in front of goal the amount of times that we want to do, I think he will do really well in this league. But if we do the opposite I don’t think he is going to do well.”