Arsenal have offered their full support to club captain Patrick Vieira after the Frenchman was charged with misconduct by the Football Association.
The incident occured during Arsenal’s match with Chelsea att the weekend and Vieira is accused of using abusive language to referee Andy D’Urso after being dismissed for two bookable offences – his eighth red card as an Arsenal player.
On hearing the news that Vieira was to be charged, Arsenal issued the following statement on their website: ‘We have 14 days in which to respond to this charge. We will ask for a personal hearing where we will defend Patrick vigorously.’
Vieira will serve a one-match ban, on September 21 at home to Bolton, but the ban could be extended to three matches if found guilty of the misconduct charge. His previous misdemeanours have resulted in Vieira being fined a total of £78,000 by the FA.
