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Arteta delighted with Tomiyasu’s display during Arsenal’s win over Liverpool

By Ritayan Chatterjee on October 10, 2022

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has expressed that he is delighted with Takehiro Tomiyasu’s impressive display during the Gunners’ 3-2 victory over Liverpool on Sunday.

The Japanese’s inclusion in the starting eleven as a left-back came as a big surprise ahead of the game against Jurgen Klopp’s side. Arteta revealed during the pre-match interview, just before the game, that Oleksandr Zinchenko was out of the match-day squad after sustaining a fresh muscle injury.

Kieran Tierney was thought to be the natural replacement for Zinchenko, however, Arteta opted to go with Tomiyasu, keeping the Scotsman on the bench.

Tomiyasu did his job extremely well – in a position where he doesn’t play that often – and completely minimized Mohamed Salah’s threat which forced Klopp to substitute the Egyptian in the second half.

Speaking on the club’s media after the game, Arteta said that the Japan international played extremely well and executed the plan of containing Salah perfectly.

The Spanish boss also stated that he was pleased by Tomiyasu’s display on Sunday, especially after the defender played the full game in midweek versus Bodo/Glimt.

Arteta praises Tomiyasu

Arteta said:

“Very good, and that’s what we hoped he would do and he exactly did that, to think of doing that against Salah and actually do it is a very different story. He’s done it incredibly well, especially after playing on Thursday and what he’s been through in the last few weeks.”

Arteta should consider bringing Tomiyasu to the starting line-up on a more regular basis. After recovering from his injury problems, the 23-year-old has looked solid in the last two games and he would be better suited to play in the right-back position over Ben White.

Although the Englishman has done excellently in the right-back position in the early stages of this campaign, he is a centre-back by trait and the boss should consider starting White in defence alongside William Saliba, dropping Gabriel Magalhães from the first eleven.

The Brazilian’s form has been a point of concern for Arsenal amid their excellent start to this season. The 24-year-old has already made three bad mistakes early in this season. Although these mistakes didn’t prevent Arsenal from winning those games, if the defender continues to make bad decisions then it will eventually prove costly.

Therefore, Although Arteta might be reluctant to change his winning combination, he should think about shuffling his backline. I think bringing Tomiyasu back into the starting eleven would be a good decision in place of Gabriel, placing White in the centre-back alongside Saliba and the Japanese in the right full-back position.