Steven Gerrard challenges Vieira (MikeHewitt/Allsport)

Vieira received treatment to his left knee following Steven Gerrard's tackle in the Community Shield on Sunday, which Highbury boss Arsene Wenger claimed should have led to the Liverpool midfielder being sent off.

However, Arsenal confirmed that the Frenchman trained yesterday as planned along with the rest of the first-team squad and he is expected to captain the side against newly-promoted Birmingham at Highbury on Sunday.

Nwankwo Kanu is ruled out of the game through injury and while Francis Jeffers is now on the comeback trail, Robert Pires, Fredrik Ljungberg and Giovanni van Bronckhorst are still long-term absentees.

In fact, Pires has just turned down the chance to start training back at the club's London Colney base as he claimed it would have been too frustrating. The France forward, who still has a couple of months to go in his recuperation from a knee operation, is not yet ready to train alongside his team-mates.

So while he was delighted to see other members of the squad again at Tuesday's official photo-call and even took part in a light training session, Pires wants to return to the rehabilitation centre that he has been using in the south of France.