Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has waxed lyrical about Fabio Vieira following the Gunners' Europa League draw with Sporting Lisbon, claiming that he 'absolutely loves' the Portuguese playmaker.
The ex-Porto man returned to his homeland for the first leg of Arsenal's last-16 tie, and he was one of the Gunners' standout players in an end-to-end contest at Estadio Jose Alvalade.
Vieira's corner was on the money for William Saliba to head home the game's opening goal - one of two chances he created on the day, as well as posting a 100% success rate from long balls.
The 22-year-old was also named in the first XI for the weekend's Premier League triumph over Bournemouth, but he has largely found it difficult to displace Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Martin Odegaard.
However, Arteta recently admitted that Vieira was knocking on the door for more minutes, and he believes that the Portugal Under-21 international was Arsenal's most dangerous player on the night.
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"Really happy with him. I think he deserves more minutes than he's had, especially in the last two months," football.london quotes Arteta as saying in his post-game press conference.
"Obviously he had a difficult start because we injured for two months after a surgery and wasn't at the level that we want. You saw tonight he was probably our most dangerous player. He was always making things happen. He's a player that I absolutely love."
Despite scoring from a set-piece, Arsenal did not prove adept at defending them, as Goncalo Inacio took advantage of a corner mix-up between Matt Turner and Jakub Kiwior to level the scores from before half time.
As Turner hesitated to claim the cross in his six-yard box, Kiwior ducked out of the way - perhaps having heard a shout - giving Inacio a free run to power home a header.
Paulinho then sent Sporting ahead early in the second half, but a freak own goal from Hidemasa Morita ultimately saw the spoils shared, as Granit Xhaka's attempted cross hit the Japan international and nestled in the far corner.
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While Arsenal arguably have the upper hand in the tie ahead of next week's second leg at the Emirates Stadium, they have now conceded two goals in three of their last five games, and Arteta admitted that his side are conceding too many sloppy goals.
"We are conceding too many simple goals. We spoke about the importance of boxes, especially in a competition when you're in or out. Today we didn't defend that well enough and we have to be better at threatening the opponents as well," Arteta added.
"We've played some really emotional games recently. We made a lot of changes today and sometimes that takes time to get that cohesion and you could feel it in the first 15 minutes that it needed some time to adapt and click. If we don't expose them though that's never going to happen."
When asked about the confusion between Turner and Kiwior, Arteta added: "I don't know what it was. It happened in a split second but for sure in that space somebody cannot have a free header and concede a goal."
Before welcoming Sporting to the Emirates for next Thursday's second leg, Arsenal resume their Premier League title charge away to London rivals Fulham on Sunday afternoon, sitting five points clear of Manchester City at the top of the table with 12 games left to play.
Ben Knapton
