Arsenal will have to go a little longer without Takehiro Tomiyasu after Japan secured a place in the quarter-finals of the Asian Cup courtesy of a comfortable 3-1 win over Bahrain.
Ritsu Doan and Takefusa Kubo put Japan in a commanding position before Ayase Ueda put through his own net to reduce the deficit. The striker made amends soon after, slotting home to secure victory.
The Samurai Blue will face either Iran or Syria on Saturday night meaning Tomi, who played the full 90 minutes today, will miss Sunday’s huge Premier League clash against Liverpool.
As things stand, Cedric and Reuell Walters can provide cover at right-back. However, with several Turkish clubs making sexy eyes at the Portugal international ahead of the transfer window closing, it’s a position we’ll likely need to strengthen at the end of the season.
For now, we’re holding out for Takehiro…
No, we’re not sorry.
At least he played the full 90, so he isn’t injured. For now! If Salah plays against us, we will really miss Tomiyasu, but either way he will hopefully be back and healthy with us soon.
Let the guy enjoy his tournament! I don’t get why people want him back so fast
I want him home and happy – having lifted the Asia Cup!
I hear you, but it’s massive game against Liverpool and of course we want him playing for us if we could choose.
He would probably be starting ahead of Zinchenko, especially given the nightmare Zinny had at Anfield. Home games are a different ball of wax and Zin has the personality to put that behind him, but we’ll have to hope Jota or Salah don’t get too many chances to test Zinchenko’s weaker right side. Big BIG game this weekend, possibly season defining.
Obviously want him back fast because he’s an Arsenal player, paid for by Arsenal, he’s at risk of injury, and he improves our defence and will help us mount a title challenge.
I can’t imagine Partey is ready for 90 minutes, but this would certainly be the match for him and Rice together. One advantage of that is that Zinchenko has more cover when he comes infield.
As long as he stays healthy, good luck to him and the Japan team.
Do we need really need to revisit RB in summer? We’d have three players (Ben White, Timber and Tomiyasu) who can play there to a very high level, which imo makes it the position we have most depth anywhere on the pitch. I’d say our first, second and third priority should be a goalscoring forward, followed by a Partey/Jorginho replacement, followed by a Saka backup. Unless somebody leaves I can’t see any situation where a right back signing is a good use of our resources.
Watched Oshimen in AFCON. He hasn’t even scored a lot of goals in the competition yet but so much important for his team. He is as industrious as Gabriel Jesus plus higher speed, athleticism, more direct and a lot more goals over a season. The bad news is that Mbappe will finally take a pay cut to go to Real Madrid, and the Qatar money will be shown to Oshimen.
Yes we our top priority should be to buy a prolific striker but it won’t be Oshimen.
Declan Rice seemed like a pipe dream two seasons ago too, and despite competition from another oil state, we got him. The club has done really well with identifying their targets really early, getting buy-in from the player, and then showing a really superb product on the pitch that top players want to join. Sometimes the oil state still wins (like with Mudryk), but it took a lot of hardball and a big over pay. If we don’t get Osimhen, so be it, but I think you’re underrating our chances.
The man has gorgeous cheekbones
Come back fit please Tomi. That’s all I ask. He can be a difference maker. His absence last season proved it.