Football writer Charles Watts has urged Mikel Arteta to drop Cedric Soares in favour of Takehiro Tomiyasu for the next Arsenal match.
The Gunners face a tricky home fixture against high-flying Wolves at the Emirates Stadium on Thursday night. One key choice the club’s manager must make ahead of the game is who to play at right-back.
In Arsenal’s last two league outings, Cedric has been trusted to play in that position and has helped his side take all three points on both occasions. However, Tomiyasu should hopefully be fit to start again, having missed out on featuring in the club’s three prior Premier League matches due to injury – though he did make the bench against Brentford last weekend.
While speaking on his YouTube channel, the journalist said the Japanese defender should be the man to start against Bruno Lage and co and would be ‘surprised’ if that wasn’t the case.
Watts explained: “Tomiyasu we know is back available. He didn’t even have to come on against Brentford. So he’d have had another few days’ training.
“I expect Tomiyasu will start, I’d be surprised if he doesn’t, if Cedric keeps his spot. I think Cedric’s done very, very well – no doubt about that. Mikel Arteta praised that, actually, during the press conference.
“But I think now Tomiyasu’s fit, he’s had a few more days to be prepared. I think he comes back into the team against Wolves on Thursday night.”
TIF Thoughts on Takehiro Tomiyasu and Arsenal…
With Arsenal winning the two games Cedric played in, it’s hard to disagree with Watts’ claim that the defender has done ‘very well’ filling in.
However, you can also understand why he wants to see Tomiyasu back in the fold. Indeed, with the 23-year-old starting, the Gunners have kept eight Premier League clean sheets out of a possible 16.
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It’s a big decision to make with plenty on the line. Indeed, Wolves would actually move ahead of Arsenal in the league table if they were to claim all three points – though they will have played one more game than their opponents.
Judging from Watts’ comments, though, Tomiyasu should be the man to come back in.
In other news: ‘Hell of a deal’ – Charles Watts claims Arsenal got a £30m summer ‘bargain’