FA charges Vieira with misconduct after sending-off

Patrick Vieira has been charged with misconduct by the Football Association following a report from the referee Andy D'Urso concerning an incident in the match against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.

The Arsenal midfielder is accused of a breach of FA rule E2, which constitutes making abusive and/or insulting words to the match official. Vieira, who was sent off by D'Urso during the game against Chelsea for two yellow card offences, has 14 days to respond to the charge.

The Gunners had already expressed their "frustration and disappointment" after it was announced that D'Urso would not be overturning the dismissal during the 1-1 draw because yellow cards cannot be rescinded.

Vieira will serve a one-match ban, on 21 September at home to Bolton, but is clear to play in the club's opening two Champions' League fixtures against Borussia Dortmund and PSV Eindhoven.

A club statement had said: "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."

Leicester City will take their case to the High Court if their appeal hearing over the sacking of midfielder Dennis Wise is not successful. The club are to defend their decision to dismiss Wise after the Football League's Disciplinary Committee ruled not to accept a termination of the player's contract, but will have to wait until 18 September to argue their case after the hearing was put back by three weeks because the QC chairing the case is on holiday. Leicester sacked Wise for serious misconduct an incident in pre-season training which resulted in a fractured cheekbone for Wise's team-mate Callum Davidson.

A Leicester spokesman said: "We're not happy at all. The reason the 28 August date was never confirmed was that Wise's people wanted more time to prepare their case. Now we've found out it's been put back three weeks because the QC chairing the case is on holiday. We were offered 17 September, but that was a match day, so it was not possible. But our stance is clear – the player is sacked. We will take it to the High Court if we lose the appeal.

"The Football League's Disciplinary Committee agreed with us last time that Wise was guilty of serious misconduct, but simply did not agree that sacking was a suitable punishment."

Chelsea yesterday tipped their transfer deadline-day free signings to form a big part of the future at Stamford Bridge.

The Chelsea manager, Claudio Ranieri, signed three players on Saturday: the 21-year-old French right-back Jean Yves Anis, the Portuguese centre-back Mauro Oscar Coelho Da Silva and the Dutch forward Moubarak Boussoufa, who are both 18. The trio were all out of contract – Anis at Rennes, Da Silva at Porto and Boussoufa at Ajax – and have signed two-year deals at the west London club.

A mid-season Premiership break looks increasingly distant after the Premier League's chief executive, Richard Scudamore, claimed the proposal was "almost impossible" yesterday. The England coach, Sven Goran Eriksson, is known to be in favour of a two-week break in January, with the Arsenal manager, Arsène Wenger, and his Liverpool counterpart, Gérard Houllier, also backing the idea of giving players a break.

But increased congestion on an already cramped fixture list make a break unlikely. "You have a break and you then come back and have a condensed calendar," said Scudamore. You have to play the FA Cup much more quickly than you otherwise would, you've got the Worthington Cup, the FA Cup and England friendlies that come in the second half of the season fairly thick and fast – they don't start again until February normally.

"You have then got all the Premier League to fit in. Who is to say that after four months of the high-octane end to the season that anyone is going to be any better for the two weeks they had four months previously? That is the difficult thing.

"The practical difficulties of actually getting it all to fit is almost impossible," he said.