“What are you doing, man?. You cost us the win against this toothless Fulham”- Arsenal icon Patrick Vieira says 25-years old Arsenal star looks so lost and play like he’s a minus 1 against Fulham and Arteta can never win the PL title with the player

Patrick Vieira says 25-year-old Arsenal player just looked lost against Fulham

Vieira has issued a brutal verdict on the performance of Takehiro Tomiyasu after the defender came on for Arsenal at half-time of their clash with Fulham on Sunday.

Mikel Arteta’s side rounded off 2023 by suffering their second defeat in a row, with Marco Silva’s men coming from behind to win 2-1 at Craven Cottage.

The game was poised at half-time with the score 1-1. But Fulham had given the visitors a good scare. And with that, Mikel Arteta decided to make a change, bringing on Takehiro Tomiyasu for Jakub Kiwior at left-back.

Patrick Vieira baffled by Takehiro Tomiyasu display in Arsenal loss

Of course, the left-back position is particularly important to the way Arteta wants his side to play. Oleksandr Zinchenko has come in for criticism for his recent displays. But he is generally very comfortable moving into more of a midfield role when the time comes.

Neither Kiwior or Tomiyasu however, could impress in the role on Sunday. And Jamie Redknapp told Super Sunday (broadcast on 31/12; 16:15) that Tomiyasu really hurt the team after coming off the bench at the break.

“He tried the change at half-time, bringing Tomiyasu on. Tomiyasu then comes into midfield. And all he did was just make a nuisance of himself for his own team. Because he was never giving any width,” he said.

“Tomiyasu just looked lost in there. I certainly don’t think that helped the situation.”

“Tomiyasu came into the midfield today and just looked like a fish up a tree. I’m watching him going, what are you doing in there? You were just wandering around. That’s not his fault. He doesn’t play there. He’s a right-back predominantly and you’re asking him to be a good midfield player. And it just looked wrong. And if I’m Rice or I’m Odegaard, I’m saying ‘just get out of my way. I don’t need you in here’,” he went on to add.

January window may be arriving at the perfect time

There is plenty for Arsenal to work on over the coming weeks. The Gunners have only won one of their last six games in all competitions. And they now sit fourth in the table. 

Things can change incredibly quickly. But it will be alarming to many fans that Arsenal look to be out of ideas at this stage of the season. 

January does offer Arteta the chance to freshen things up. And there may be some supporters now desperately hoping that a new left-back is on the shopping list while the window is open.