Tony Adams is pleased that Takehiro Tomiyasu is back to full fitness and can play the next few games for Arsenal because Cedric Soares scares him.
The Portugal international has been Arsenal’s stand-in right-back as Tomiyasu missed several weeks because of injury.
He was mostly shaky in Arsenal’s 3-1 win against Manchester United yesterday, and he nearly gave away a penalty.
The former Southampton man almost lasted the whole game before Tomi replaced him in the last few minutes.
The return of the Japanese star is a relief to most Arsenal fans, and Adams admits he is one of them and says he is always scared when the club has to turn to Soares to play as its right-back.
He tells Premier League Productions as quoted by The Sun:
“Tomi came back right at the end there which is great because I’m still scared about Cedric.
“He scares the life out of me so it’s good to see Tomi back in action.
“If we can get him back and get solid defensively, I think we’ve got fourth.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
The reason Arsenal splashed the cash on Tomi is that they don’t trust Soares, so we hardly expect him to do a great job when he plays.
But to his credit, he has been decent for the club in some matches this season, and he probably deserves to remain as our backup to the current first choice.
WATCH Mikel Arteta on Granit Xhaka, a phenomenal game, and Tottenham…
Agreed. Cedric is on high wages compared to what he brings to the team. That Spence guy from Nottingham looks great..
Cedric doesn’t scare me as much as Tavares does. Keep Cedric for one more year and then Norton-Cuffy should ready to step up, saving the club £ms that can be spent on more important players.
Well said, seems a great plan to me. Another season on loan and ready to come in as backup RB.
Cedric can fill in, but not someone I’d like to depend on for multiple weeks.
Cedric was recruited by a corrupt system
Raul Sanhelli
Edu Gaspar
Kia Joorabchan
He was given 4yr contract even though he was 31 and reserve RB at Southampton
Decent but not Arsenal quality
Err… No..Cedric is still 30 years old and he was given a 4 year contract 2 years ago (so a 28year old got a 4 year contract until he is 32, not a terrible piece of business). A 3 year contract would be better but it was not really bad business, we have seen far worse.
CEDRIC and TAVARES both scare me. Esp Tavares.
Neither are good enough, despite the foolish overpraising of Cedric who is a very moderate, even poor player, as being good enough. He is NOT!
There is a huge gulf in class between our first choice FB’s and the stand ins, who must not play FB AGAIN.
I WOULD KEEP Tavares but never as a defender. He cannot defend and has no defenders instinct, though he is better going forward.
Not my first choice – far from it, but not a disaster. Struggled yesterday but has been ok generally
He works okay with two pivots, a decent left fullback and weak opponents or as a wing back.
Other than that he is not solid defensively, him and Tavares/Xhaka as left back with only Lokonga was a nightmare. ESR, Gabi, Saka and Nartin does not contribute defensively enough for us to play in that system.
If we go to Europe, we will have large number of matches and we will need more squad depth, we cannot keep releasing players for free.
Both Soares and Tavares are not perfect but have done a job as the first choices are really injury prone. AMN could easily fill in and Spence looks great too. Be humble Arteta and play guys who are good, home grown and more Arsenal than you.
Cedric has done a decent job in Tomi’s absence, not great but a good back up. But Tavares worries me more, he has no defensive instincts at all, would be a good LWB with 3defenders. We will have to rethink about our full back situation in the summer specially if we make it to Europe.
overreaction. he’s done fine as a backup RB think tony is being dramatic. Tavares is the WAY bigger concern because his defending is simply not up to standards for any EPL side outside of a relegation zone. He’s gonna be a handicap for the rest of the season. I’m sure arteta keeps telling him to not take stupid risks, but he can’t help it unfortunately.