Vieira gets two-match ban and £25,000 fine

ARSENAL'S miserable week took a turn for the worse yesterday as captain Patrick Vieira was handed a two-match ban and £25,000 (€30.500) fine for insulting referee Andy D'Urso.

Vieira is now set to miss the North London derby against Tottenham on November 16 and a trip to Southampton on November 23. Arsene Wenger, whose team have just lost back-to-back matches against Everton and Auxerre, indicated that an appeal was under consideration. ''We are naturally very disappointed at this decision and will be thinking about an appeal over the next couple of days,'' said the Gunners boss. However, the risk for Arsenal in appealing would be simply managing to delay a suspension until December 7, when they face Manchester United at Old Trafford.

The chances are that the Football Association's disciplinary commission would then still side with referee D'Urso, who was the only prosecution witness in today's four-and-a-half-hour hearing.

The commission concluded that Vieira was guilty of one charge of using insulting language towards the Billericay official but not guilty of using abusive language. Although that verdict left some room for confusion, it is thought that while Vieira was deemed to have accused D'Urso of having ''no personality'', he did not actually swear at him in more forthright language.

Vieira, who was supported by evidence from team-mate Kanu, is therefore the first victim of the FA's crackdown on players' verbally insulting officials. The incident occurred after he was sent off by D'Urso during Arsenal's 1-1 draw at Chelsea on September 1, the eighth red card of his Highbury career.

The Frenchman disputed the decision, which followed a second yellow card for a late tackle on Jesper Gronkjaer. Arsenal, whose case was presented by Mark Phillips QC, presented written evidence by a lip reading expert who had seen video evidence of the game. A central part of their case was that, while Vieira was speaking to D'Urso on the pitch, there was not sufficient time for him to say all the words of which he was accused.

However, the FA commission, consisting of Barry Bright, John Davey, Peter Heard and Alan Turvey, had little option but to support D'Urso's evidence or risk a referees' backlash.

After the guilty verdict was passed, Arsenal's legal team made a brief presentation of mitigation.