Arsenal face Lens at the Emirates on Wednesday knowing that a draw will seal their progress to the Champions League round of 16. But Arteta confirmed Vieira’s absence in his pre-match press conference.
The 23-year-old, signed in the summer of 2022 from Porto, missed the dramatic win away to Brentford on Saturday as he served the first part of a three-match ban. But that suspension only applies to domestic games and, if fit, he would have been in contention for the Lens clash.
"Yeah we’ve got a problem with him. He’s been having some discomfort. We tried to have some conservative treatment with him. It wasn’t improving so we sent him to see a specialist and the advice was to have an operation in his groin," Arteta said.
"We did that yesterday. We expect him to be out for weeks now. We don’t expect him to do that [return to action before January]. Let’s see how he evolves. The job, it was done yesterday so we’ll have to wait and see. It will take weeks I think."
But Arteta had a more positive update for defender Ben White. The 26-year-old came on in the 92nd minute at the Gtech Stadium but trained alone on Tuesday, leading to fears he had suffered a recurrence of a muscle injury that sidelined him briefly earlier this month.
"He trained the day before the Brentford game and was feeling good. I think he’ll be available for this game," Arteta said. "That’s very good news for us
Arsenal sit top of Group B ahead of Wednesday's game having won three of their first four matches - the outlier being the reverse fixture at Lens.
Arteta’s side are four points clear of both PSV Eindhoven and the Ligue 1 club with Sevilla trailing by seven. They must also go to Eindhoven in mid-December, by which point Arteta will be hoping to have secured the north London club’s progress to the knockout stages - and potentially rest some key players during a hectic month in which they play eight fixtures.
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