Arsenal star Fabio Vieira was seen shouting at Reiss Nelson in the first half of the Gunners’ Europa League game against Bodo/Glimt yesterday.
Mikel Arteta’s men travelled to Norway for their third group-stage game in the competition. They were made to work really hard by Bodo/Glimt, but they still managed to get the job done and are now one step away from winning the group.
Why Fabio Vieira was shouting at Arsenal teammate Reiss Nelson against Bodo/Glimt
Arteta handed Nelson his first start of the season in Norway yesterday.
The 22-year-old struggled with an injury that he picked up in the summer and has missed most of the season as a result. He returned to action with an impressive cameo last week, and that earned him a go from the start yesterday.
Nelson didn’t have a bad game by any means. He was good on the ball, took players on for fun and should be fairly happy with his display against a well-organised Bodo/Glimt side.
However, in the early stages of the first half yesterday, Nelson got his positioning wrong on a few occasions. That was noticed by Vieira and the Portuguese midfielder made sure to tell the 22-year-old about it.
Football London report that Vieira was seen ‘shouting’ at Nelson in the first half. He was instructing the young Englishman on where to stand, and the Arsenal academy graduate listened to him.
Nelson’s positioning looked a lot better from that point.
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Vieira was the star of the show when Arsenal faced Bodo/Glimt at home last week. He scored a goal and provided a beautiful assist to Rob Holding to help the Gunners win the game, but he was relatively very quiet yesterday.
The 22-year-old was asked to play on the left side of central midfield instead of in his usual number 10 role. He has played there before for Porto, but he didn’t look great there in an Arsenal shirt last night.
Vieira barely touched the ball in the first half, and it was only after he was given a more advanced role in the second 45 that he began to have an impact on the game.
It will be interesting to see if Arteta will deploy him in a number eight role again in the coming weeks.