Absent since Arsenal were dumped out of the Carabao Cup by Liverpool in January, we think it’s fair to assume that Takehiro Tomiyasu will not be part of tomorrow’s squad when the Reds visit Emirates Stadium tomorrow in the Premier League.
While Mikel Arteta says the right-back is set to train today, which is good news, it sounds like we aren’t going to take another unnecessary risk with a player who has been struggling with recurrent calf issues.
“Tomi is the only one that’s still there in contention [to miss the game]” the boss stated.
“We have been trying to push him, but with the handbrake a little bit because we need to be careful as we don’t want to get another injury with him. We don’t know [if tomorrow is too soon]. Let’s see how he trains today.”
In retrospect, Tomiyasu clearly shouldn’t have played Liverpool on 20 January. Despite offering his services in the absence of Calum Chambers and Cedric, he was well below the high standards he’d set since joining the club and clearly couldn’t run at full pelt. Diego Jota subsequently gave him the runaround.
That he exacerbated his injury, recovered and then suffered a similar problem in the other leg is definitely a bit worrying, so given Cedric’s decent form, it probably makes sense to save Tomi until after the upcoming Interlull.
I feel like football managers don’t really know what handbrakes are and how they are used.
That, pretty clearly, is a Wenger legacy. (The use of that word, nothing to do with the substance.)
No point in rushing him back. If he is ready, he can get a couple of minutes against Villa on Saturday, but in each case let him fully recover so we can use him again after the international break.
Good point. I always recall Pires missing the end of his best season when they played him in the “red zone”.
Assuming Tomi doesn’t play, which if he’s as badly injured as reported, he shouldn’t, I’d be interested to see if Arteta gets creative with his lineup. Putting say Ben White at RB could be interesting. Despite Cedric’s recent form I’m still not convinced he won’t get roasted.
Same line up. Perhaps ESR starts, but I still think they are nursing him back to health. Go with our best squad at home. We’ve been on fire lately. Don’t over think the lineup.
I would stick with the same lineup. ESR and Pepe late subs and start them both at Villa.
My word. Social media really is toxic isn’t it.
You would have received the same negative response if we were all together in a pub and you made that suggestion. Social media has nothing to do with it.
If you play White at RB it upsets the CB partnership and you end up with potential problems elsewhere. Remember Xhaka playing at LB last season? It messed up the midfield and that caused problems there and beyond.
Better to keep the current lineup rather than make multiple changes. Especially against Liverpool.
Exactly. Also, White didn’t really light up the fullback position when he played there. There’s developing understanding between Cedric, Saka and Odegaard that White would be a stranger to.
It will probably be the new guy Diaz who will line up against Cedric. Its going to be tricky but I wouldnt change the line up.
Agree, stick with winning team. But we will need to figure a way to give Cedric some help.
Exactly. Cedric will be targeted but he’s done decent so far and deserves to keep his place until Tomi is back. We just need to game plan to give him support. Frankly Liverpool can hurt anyone across the whole back line of pretty much every team in the league, so we need to come prepared and focused for the full 90+ minutes.
Other than breaking up our much successful centre half partnership since BFG/Koscielny, I don’t see too many downsides to this.
Playing Ben White RB would be a big mistake as we loose him as CB
Please don’t use the ‘handbrake’ metaphor Mikel. We had enough of that with a certain predecessor.
Some people truly live up to their names, huh..?
Speaking of testicles, my idiot friend refers to his as “wonkas” because they are located between a willy and a chocolate factory.
Thank you, thank you. I’ll be here all week…
If MA wins half as much as AW did after his first 5 years, he’ll have done just fine.
Yeah – his name was Arsene Wenger and he was the greatest manager this club has ever had.Don’t not name him – makes you come across bad,
We really do. I was surprised to see that his injury history at Bologna was quite spotty (18 matches missed through injury between 19/20 & 20/21). He’s clearly one of those players that gives 120% on the pitch, even to the detriment of his own body.
If the medical team could teach Tomi to perform at 95% instead, it would do him a lot of good.
Footballers aren’t machines…it doesn’t work like that.
We don’t have to rush him because we have some big games coming, but we should try as much as we can not to loose to game.
I agree, they need to keep a tight grip on the game. Keep their foot on the Liverpool necks
Don’t rush him back as I feel he is our most consistent, dependable defender. I mean apart from being injured 😉 Realistically, I don’t think this is a match we win with or without Tomi. But we certainly have a great chance at Top 4, and that chance is much improved with a healthy Tomiyasu.