Former Arsenal star, Kevin Campbell is impressed by the performance of Arsenal’s summer signing Takehiro Tomiyasu in the two games he has played for the club.
The Gunners signed the Japanese star from Bologna in the last transfer window and he was in their starting XI straight after the international break.
He has helped the Gunners to keep a clean sheet in their games against Norwich City and Burnley since he has been in the lineup.
He was signed as an upgrade to other options at the club after the likes of Calum Chambers, Cedric Soares and Hector Bellerin failed to make the right-back spot theirs.
The latter has since left the club for Real Betis and Tomiyasu’s performance so far has made the Gunners not miss him.
In a video posted by Chris Wheatley on Twitter, the full-back was helped up by his teammates after their 1-0 win at Turf Moor the last time out, and Campbell is convinced that the action showed the unity at Arsenal at the moment before praising Tomiyasu for his stunning form.
“It fills me with joy to see it [the video of Tomiyasu],” he told Football Insider.
“When have we ever seen Arsenal do that in the last few years? We haven’t.
“A couple of weeks ago there were holes in Arsenal’s squad and right-back was one of the holes they had. Tomiyasu has come in and made such a big difference.
“He can defend and he is decent enough going forward. He isn’t fantastic going forward but he doesn’t have to be because he does his job as a right-back. It’s so important as a defender to do that.
“At the weekend he was up against a good player in Dwight McNeil and he dealt with him superbly.
“I think Tomiyasu was a quite brilliant signing because you can see that he wants to play for the badge. It is only his second game and he is just going to get better and fitter.”
We need to slow down. Let him play against the big boys, then we’ll start talking. This was said when Willian, Ceballos, Odegaard, and Pepe. Now most of those comments seems out-dated. Even Arteta was seen as an upgrade to Wenger. Let is hold our horses for a while
For once Campbell is talking sense.At last we have a right back who can actually defend and enjoys it.He may face a real test on Sunday against Son who has been a thorn in our flesh.If he can keep him quiet it will be a major step forward.
One clear thing to see is the sense of unity in our squad and definitely Tomiyasu is doing a great job at RB. We needed a defender proper at RB and Tomiyasu seems to have filled that slot. The real test will come on Sunday but I feel, by the look of it, Tomiyasu is equal to the task.