Mikel Arteta made a ‘really intelligent’ call by starting £16m man vs Sevilla

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Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has been told he made the right call starting Takehiro Tomiyasu against Sevilla in the Champions League.

Pundit Liam Brady was speaking on the Handbrake Off Podcast after the Gunners returned to winning ways in Europe.

Gabriel Jesus put in arguably his best performance of the season, providing a beautiful assist for Gabriel Martinelli before curling home the winner.

There were some fantastic performances across the pitch with Declan Rice once against starring in midfield.

However, Arsenal’s official Player of the Match was Takehiro Tomiyasu who came into the side at left-back.

Oleksandr Zinchenko struggled against Chelsea at the weekend and the Japanese international was brought off the bench at half-time to replace him.

Tomiyasu’s performance earned him a start against Sevilla and it appears as though Mikel Arteta made the right call bringing him into the side.

The £16m defender was dominant on the left flank and might have just played himself into Arsenal’s strongest team.

It explains why the club reportedly turned down bids to sell the 24-year-old in the summer.

Arteta praised for starting Tomiyasu against Sevilla

Speaking about the defender’s inclusion, Clarke said: “In the toughest tests you want your best defenders don’t you, especially away from home.

“Look, we had four centre-halves effectively across the back line last night with [Ben] White and [Takehiro] Tomiyasu at full-back.

“And when you’re up against a team that are really good out wide, they put good crosses into the box as we saw late on and they’ve got one of the best headers of the ball in European football in [Youssef] En-Nesyri.

“It made total sense to play four centre-halves with the set pieces threat [as well].

“I know we conceded from one but it was a really intelligent selection and I think [Oleksandr] Zinchenko’s got a lot to prove to the manager to get himself into the starting XI for the biggest matches moving forward.”

After his performance against Sevilla, Tomiyasu has given Arteta plenty to think about ahead of their match against Sheffield United on Saturday.

It would be incredibly harsh to drop him now but Arteta rarely moves away from his favoured team in the Premier League.

Oleksandr Zinchenko can still invert into midfield better than any other player in the Arsenal squad.

However, his defensive shortcomings are becoming more of a problem and teams know they can target Arsenal’s left-hand side when he’s in the team.