Medical expert: Takehiro Tomiyasu has exposed ‘significant’ Arsenal problem
The absence of Takehiro Tomiyasu has exposed a lack of depth in the Arsenal backline.
That is the view of injury expert Ben Dinnery, who runs the Premier Injuries site and has a background in medicine and data analysis.
Tomiyasu has not featured for the Gunners since the 2-0 League Cup semi-final defeat to Liverpool last month (20 January).
The 23-year-old right-back, a £19.8million summer signing from Bologna, is closing in on a return from a nagging calf injury.
Arsenal revealed today (15 February) that the Japanese international has now returned to full team training.
Callum Chambers, Pablo Mari and Sead Kolasinac left the club in January, while William Saliba and Hector Bellerin are currently out on loan.
And Tomiyasu’s injury has raised questions about the Gunners’ lack of depth in the defensive department, claims Dinnery.
“He was thrown in at the deep end when he joined Arsenal,” he told Football Insider‘s Adam Williams.
“There had been niggling calf problems but it was game week 18 where they really came to the fore.
“For context, there were only two outfield players in the league who had played more minutes up until that point.
“When you’re talking about a player coming into a new environment and a new team, to perform at that level was impressive.
“But it doesn’t come as any major surprise that he picked up that calf issue. It has been difficult to shake off.
“Against Liverpool Arteta admitted that in an ideal world that he would have come off.
“But he played through the pain and that probably went a little way to exacerbating that problem.
“In Cedric Soares, they do have a like-for-like replacement. He is an option but he doesn’t have the manager’s confidence as much.
“Ben White could also shuffle across but they don’t have huge availability at centre-back. That could be significant in these latter stages of the season.”
Tomiyasu has laid on one assist in 17 appearances for Arsenal.
He could return ahead of the home clash against Brentford on Saturday (19 February).
In other news, Kieran Maguire hails “excellent bit of business” after new Arsenal deal announced.