The Gunners fell to a shock defeat at Lens in their last Champions League encounter, so they’ll be eager to put things right.
At present, the Arsenal starting XI mostly picks itself, but there is one change Mikel Arteta could make for the game in Spain.
We reckon the Gunners boss will unleash Takehiro Tomiyasu from the off, with Oleksandr Zinchenko making way for the £16million man.
Zinchenko was significantly below par in Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Chelsea. Indeed, Arteta took him off at half-time.
“A really poor afternoon for the Ukrainian,'” wrote football.london, who gave him a 4 out of 10 rating.
“Struggled to win his one-vs-one duels with Raheem Sterling as Chelsea threatened time and again down the right.
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“Offered very little on the ball to offset this.”
‘Good threat’
By contrast, Tomiyasu was impressive against the Blues. Football.london awarded him a mark of 7 out of 10.
“Stopped the Chelsea supply line down the right with some diligent one-vs-one defending,” they wrote.
“Offered a good threat in the air from set pieces as well.”
In terms of merit alone, Tomiyasu certainly deserves to start ahead of Zinchenko against Sevilla.However, you could also make a case for the Japan international’s physicality and defensive prowess.
The team defends better and is more solid with Tomiyasu, while it flows better with Zinchenko.
Arsenal Training Session
Photo by Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images
With Sevilla being a tough opponent away from home, Arteta may well look to bolster his back line from the off.
In that case, the “horribly fast” and “tremendous” Tomiyasu would be the better pick.
We’ll see what happens on the night. But whatever happens, this shows how important it is to have good strength in depth.
Both players are very high quality, and even though one will be disappointed at times, it’s crucial when the other is injured, suspended, fatigued, or is just struggling for gorm.
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