Ian Wright has hailed Arsenal defender Takehiro Tomiyasu as ‘brilliant one-v-one defender’ for Arsenal after he made another appearance at left-back in the place of Kieran Tierney on Sunday during his side’s 5-0 win over Nottingham Forest.
The Arsenal legend shared how Tomiyasu stands up for himself, from a defensive standpoint, when he is coming up against the likes of Wilfried Zaha and Mohamed Salah.
Brought into the club last summer from Italian side Bologna, the 23-year-old arrived as a replacement for Hector Bellerin, who is now at Barcelona.
As soon as Tomiyasu settled into his right-back role, he became an instant fan favourite and a player much-admired by his teammates because of his defensive prowess.
It was clear that he was an upgrade on Bellerin, or even Cedric Soares, with that right-sided defensive area being a problem for Mikel Arteta.
Whilst, from an attacking sense, Tomiyasu isn’t like an in-form Trent Alexander-Arnold, one thing is for sure, he can be trusted going back and he was praised by Wright, as he told Premier League Productions (29/10/22 at 1:45 pm).
“We lose something from Kieran Tierney attacking down that side,” said Wright. “But what he gives us, in respects of defensively, is brilliant.
“You watch him against the Zaha’s of this world and the Mo Salah’s, he is a brilliant one v one defender.”
CHANGES TO ARSENAL’S BACKLINE
Whilst Arsenal’s backline showed promise once Tomiyasu, Ben White, Gabriel and Kieran Tierney were starting on a regular basis together last season, Arteta still decided to change it up during this campaign.
William Saliba, who has probably been the best defender in the league this term, has pushed White out of his centre-back spot and he has shifted to right-back.
The England international has produced a number of top performances, whilst summer signing Oleksandr Zinchenko, Tomiyasu and Tierney have all had minutes at left-back.
It seems as though Arteta is set on his ways in keeping White at right-back, and why shouldn’t he, so Tomiyasu might find that the minutes might not come by as expected this season, as he has only four Premier League starts to his name.
