But the pain will not be too severe for the French international midfield star or his Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger.

Wenger today sanctioned the issue of a club statement expressing their 'frustration and disappointment'' of D'Urso's determination to stick to his guns and reiterating his view that the official made a mistake.

But the dismissal for two yellow cards means that Vieira will serve only a one-match ban, on Saturday September 21 at home to Bolton - a match that comes in between Gunners' opening two Champions League fixtures against Borussia Dortmund and PSV Eindhoven.

Vieira is clear to play in both European clashes and it was likely that Wenger might have rested him for the Bolton match.

The new Arsenal captain has started all five of their games this season but only just passed a fitness test on a calf strain ahead of the visit to Chelsea.

He is wanted by France for their friendly international against Cyprus on Saturday.

Wenger will not want to risk his star performer repeating last season when he played 70 matches in all and looked a shadow of his true self in the World Cup finals as the holders made an inglorious early exit.

Arsenal statement read: 'We fully believe that Patrick Vieira's dismissal against Chelsea was harsh and are disappointed to learn that Andy D'Urso will not be reconsidering his decision.

'Having reviewed both `yellow card offences' we are convinced that Patrick Vieira should have remained on the field of play.

'We are mindful that referees have a difficult job making decisions in a split second but in this instance the referee made a mistake and it is frustrating that the decision will not be reversed.''

In reality, only Vieira's pride will be hurt.

He insists he has cleaned up his act from the early days in the Premiership and protested his innocence after the Chelsea game, saying he was hopeful referee D'Urso would reconsider the red card after studying the incidents on video.

The Football Association revealed in a statement on their website that the sending off would stand, explaining that the referee: 'will not be reconsidering his decision to dismiss Vieira for two cautions''.

There is no right of appeal in the case of two bookings but it is highly unlikely Arsenal would have pursued one even if it were allowed by the rules.

Vieira, who was also sent off against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in a Coca Cola Cup semi-final four years ago, held an impromptu press conference after the match to give his side of the story.

He insisted he never even touched Gianfranco Zola for the first booking on 33 minutes and that Chelsea's Jesper Gronkjaer caught him, rather than the other way around, for the second yellow just five minutes into the second half.

Gronkjaer admitted: 'It was more a case of my foot hitting the sole of his boot as I dragged the ball back when he came in.

'The contact hurt me but but I feel it was an accident and that he didn't deserve another booking.''

But Vieira, who believes Gronkjaer's 'screaming'' when he went down from the clash must have influenced the referee's decision, should probably have realised that D'Urso would still consider both the challenges on Zola and Gronkjaer to be reckless and worthy of cards.

It was D'Urso who also dismissed Vieira the last time the Frenchman had an early bath - just over a year ago at Highbury when he went for a second bookable offence of adopting an aggressive attitude towards Leicester City's Dennis Wise, who received a straight red card for his part in what was no more than a spat.

The FA are unlikely to look into D'Urso's handling of Sunday's game which was far less spiteful than many previous Chelsea-Arsenal encounters but still contained nine bookings, including the two given to Vieira.

Soon after Vieira was sent off a bottle landed on the field and the FA will study D'Urso's full report of the game tomorrow before deciding on any further action, but it is likely to be low-key.

There was a spate of similar bottle-throwing incidents last season at Tottenham, Chelsea and Fulham, but none of those clubs faced FA punishment.

Instead, the ruling body adopted a policy of co-operation with the clubs who enlisted police closed circuit television footage and issued notices in match-day programmes to trace or curb the offenders.