Takehiro Tomiyasu vows to recover Arsenal starting spot
By Tom Gott
Arsenal right-back Takehiro Tomiyasu has insisted he is not scared of competition for minutes after losing his starting spot to Ben White.
William Saliba's arrival at the heart of Arsenal's defence has seen White shifted out to the right, leaving Tomiyasu forced to accept a place on the bench.
The Japan international has featured seven times in the Premier League this season but is yet to start and has racked up a total of 72 domestic minutes so far, doubling that across his two Europa League outings.
“For me it doesn’t matter which competition I play. Even if it is Europa League or a cup game, I want to help the team on the pitch,” Tomiyasu said. “But if you want to get back your position you have to be much, much better.
“If you are playing in a big club, like Arsenal, there is always competition with the other players. Competition makes me a lot better. To be fair, [White] is doing very well, he is doing fantastic. I need to learn from him a lot of things during the training sessions as well.”
Tomiyasu impressed in Europe against Bodo/Glimt on Thursday and is now hoping to keep his place against Liverpool who, he insisted, cannot be underestimated despite their poor start to the new season.
“Liverpool is still Liverpool," he stressed. "Of course it will not be an easy game.
"As I said everyone needs to be helping the team. But we are better than last season and we are confident to beat them. We have no fear. We are playing at home with 60,000 people behind us. We need to try and get three points.
“To be fair, the atmosphere of the dressing room is very good. We are confident and we are top of the League. We are ready to beat them. We have got a lot of games in October until the World Cup, so every player has to be ready to play, to help the team.”