Mikel Arteta admitted that as soon as the Europa League round of 16 draw was made, he sought out Fabio Vieira to find out more about Sporting CP.
Our Portuguese midfielder regularly plied his trade against the Lions in the Primeira Liga during his time at Porto before he upped sticks to north London last summer, and saw their return to being championship challengers under the stewardship of current boss Ruben Amorim.
That, combined with the fact that Fabio has also played with some of their current squad at international under-21 level means that Mikel was keen to hear what the midfielder thought of our opponents, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive.