Arsenal loanee returns from injury in time for Manchester United clash

Fabio Vieira is back from injury with FC Porto, and he could make the first start of his second spell with the club against Manchester United.

Arsenal midfielder Fabio Vieira joined FC Porto on loan for the season in late August, but the 24-year-old didn’t feature for the club for the first month of his spell.

Sidelined with an injury, Vieira was only able to make his first matchday squad against Arouca on Sunday.

But Porto didn’t hang about getting the loanee involved, bringing him off the bench for 21 minutes in their 4-0 win.

Now fit and available again, Vieira will hope for another appearance in Porto’s next fixture, which happens to be a Europa League match against Manchester United at home.

United made a less than ideal start to their Europa League campaign by drawing to Twente at home last week, so they’ll want to get back to winning ways now.

But Porto have a similar motivation, having lost to FK Bodo Glimt in their own opening fixture.

Given Vieira only returned to Porto’s squad four days ago, it may be too soon for him to make the starting lineup for such a big game. But you can hardly imagine a better platform for the player to kickstart his loan spell.

During his first spell with Porto, Vieira scored 10 goals and assisted 18 more. He did so in 76 appearances, but just 29 starts, having often featured as a substitute in his first few seasons.

To put his goal contributions in ‘per minute’ terms, Vieira was scoring or assisting every 100 minutes for Porto. If he can replicate that this season with a more regular starting role, he should return to Arsenal with a lot of confidence.