Mikel Arteta's Arsenal are the team to beat in England's top flight. The Premier League, for many, is lacking in quality this season, but the north Londoners are far superior to the rest. They are, at the time of writing, six points adrift of the nearest challenger, but a player who was let go by boss Arteta in the summer is living through a season to forget for his temporary employers.
What is so intriguing about Arsenal, who have finished second in back-to-back-to-back Premier League seasons from 2022/23 to 2024/25, is their squad depth. Should any of their starters – including the likes of Bukayo Saka and William Saliba – pick up an injury, the Spaniard has the depth to fill the gap.
As a result, there were a number of on-the-cusp players that left permanently in the summer: Nuno Tavares, Jorginho and Kieran Tierney are among those. Arteta, widely regarded as one of the best managers in world football, also waved goodbye to a smattering of players on a temporary basis – and one loanee has had a start to the season worth forgetting.
Arsenal Loanee Endures Nightmare Start to Life in Germany
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta reacts vs Burnley
Of those that left the Emirates Stadium on a temporary basis over the summer months, Karl Hein has been utilised as a back-up goalkeeper for Werder Bremen, Oleksandr Zinchenko is a valuable figure at Nottingham Forest and Reiss Nelson has spent plenty of time on the bench for Keith Andrews at Brentford. Fabio Vieira, elsewhere, has endured a rotten start in Germany.
On a season-long loan, the 25-year-old – who is yet to be capped by the Portugal national team but has racked up 25 caps and 14 goals for his nation's Under-21s – joined Hamburg in the summer of 2025, and it's not unfair to say that things have not gone swimmingly thus far.
fabio vieira-1
Able to play in an array of positions – including central midfield and on either wing – Vieira made his debut for Merlin Polzin's Hamburg in a 5-0 defeat to table-topping Bayern Munich. He then popped up with an assist in their 2-1 win against Heidenheim in September before being sent off in their goalless draw with Union Berlin at the end of that month.
As a result, the attacking midfielder by trade – who joined Arsenal from Primeira Liga outfit FC Porto in the summer of 2022 – missed two Bundesliga matches against Mainz and RB Leipzig in October. He returned for his employers' 1-0 defeat to Wolfsburg, but it didn't take him long to cover himself in disdain once again.
During Hamburg’s recent defeat to FC Koln, Vieira was – albeit controversially – given his marching orders in the 83rd minute to collect his second red card of the 2025/26 Bundesliga season, a feat which has encapsulated what has been a torrid start to his loan spell.
With the score 2-1 to Koln, referee Daniel Schlager handed out Vieira's second yellow card of the game after he informed the official that Marvin Schwabe – inbetween the sticks for the eventual winners – was wasting time by taking a while to get things back up and running again from a goal kick.
Fabio Vieira – Career Statistics
Club
FC Porto
Arsenal
Hamburg
Translated by German publication BILD, the referee explained why he sent the Portuguese off in the immediate aftermath of Hamburg's fifth loss of the Bundesliga campaign. As relayed by Arsenal Insider, he said:
“I told him that I wouldn’t tolerate that kind of communication. I also spoke to the captain and, at halftime, to the HSV coach, pointing out his behaviour. But it didn’t stop after halftime. At some point, I reach my limit. He then demanded time-wasting from Schwabe. That was too much for me, so I showed him a second yellow card.”
fabio
Vieira still has plenty of time to turn things around at Hamburg, a club located in the major city in northern Germany, given that he is just months into his stint. He's contracted to a season-long loan, but the German side have the chance to make that permanent come the end of the campaign for a fee of £17 million.
All statistics per Transfermarkt – correct as of 03/11/2025