Arsenal's preparations for this weekend's Premier League clash against newly-promoted Bournemouth are underway.
The Gunners go into the game at the Vitality Stadium hoping to make it three wins from three at the start of the 2022/23 Premier League season after recording impressive wins over Crystal Palace and Leicester City to sit level on points with reigning champions Manchester City at top of the table.
After a rest day following the 4-2 win over the Foxes, Arsenal's first-team players - minus the injured Reiss Nelson - were back at the London Colney training base on Monday to prepare for the trip to the South Coast and amongst those who could have been present was summer signing Fabio Vieira.
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Still awaiting his debut, or just being included in a matchday squad after a foot injury denied him a chance to get some minutes under his belt during pre-season, the Portugal U21 international uploaded a picture of him in a session alongside Gabriel Magalhaes and Oleksandr Zinchenko to Instagram.
This could be a sign that the midfielder is edging closer to being involved with the squad and interestingly the image was from the session prior to him being left out against Leicester and before some potentially worrying scenes for some Arsenal supporters.
As per a video clip uploaded to Twitter by @footballdaily, Vieira wasn't involved in Tuesday's training session and neither was Emile Smith Rowe who also endured his own fitness issues during pre-season, but did make an appearance off the bench against Leicester at the weekend.
Judging by the clip, Zinchenko, Gabriel, Ben White, Thomas Partey, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Granit Xhaka, William Saliba, Nicolas Pepe, Gabriel Martinelli, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Kieran Tierney, Mohamed Elneny, Rob Holding, Marquinhos, Gabriel Jesus, Bukayo Saka, Eddie Nketiah and Ainsley Maitland-Niles all took part and there was even a sighting of promising defender Brooke Norton-Cuffy, fresh off signing a new contract.
With that said, Vieira and Smith Rowe being absent doesn't necessarily mean either player has suffered a setback as Mikel Arteta and his coaching staff could be taking a cautious approach with the pair given they've only recently returned to full training and need to be managed carefully.
Prior to Saturday's 4-2 victory, the Gunners manager spoke in great detail about Vieira, in particular, after being asked by football.london as to what the midfielder's best role could be: "I think that’s something that the player is going to tell us," the Spaniard responded.
"We will try him, and we have tried him in training in different positions. He has played off the left, off the right, and as a false nine, attacking midfielder. It’s good. He doesn’t want to be locked into one position as well because he’s so used to it. That’s a really positive thing for us."
Meanwhile, for Smith Rowe, Arteta has already said that the Gunners' no.10 "needs to stay fit, train well and perform at the level he can perform at" to make it difficult for him to be overlooked as he looks to renew the battle with Gabriel Martinelli for the left-wing role.
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