Arsenal loannee Fabio Vieira has shown Mikel Arteta exactly what he is missing with his performance in Porto's most recent Portuguese league game. The 24-year-old returned to his home country in the summer for a season-long stint at Porto which has been mostly successful.
Ever since arriving at the club two-and-a-half years ago, Vieira has struggled to nail down a spot in Arteta's team. Some of his best performances have come on the right but with that being Bukayo Saka's best position, he has rarely featured there and the emergence of Ethan Nwaneri makes it even less likely he has a future at the club.
However, injury problems would have certainly seen him utilised in this campaign especially as Reiss Nelson also left on loan while Emile Smith Rowe and Eddie Nketiah departed permanently. With Saka unavailable since December, Arsenal had a big Vieira decision to make swiftly after he picked up that hamstring issue.
Likely inserted into the terms of his move, Arsenal had a small window where they could recall him. However, despite the fact he was left out of a Porto squad around the time that was active, the Gunners opted to not bring him back.
Since then he has struggled for regular minutes but that has changed in the last two games and Porto appear to be reaping the rewards. After playing the full 90 against Farense and picking up the assist for Francisco Moura's winner, he set up Samuel Aghehowa for his stunning overhead kick in the Europa League defeat to AS Roma.
Vieria then made it three goal contributions in as many games as he fired in a brilliant curling left-footed effort in the 1-1 draw against Vitoria de Guimaraes on Monday evening.
Two of those came from midfield while the man tasked with that at Arsenal has struggled significantly.
Technically, Martin Odegaard is a fantastic footballer but Arteta needs more from him in front of goal especially with Saka absent.
The £30million to sign him permanently from Real Madrid back in 2021 still looks an absolute bargain, but he needs to reach levels that Arteta and Arsenal supporters know he can hit especially as it is unlikely any key attackers are back for the Champions League tie against PSV.