Has Tomiyasu lost his Arsenal place to Cedric?

The season is full of twists and turns. Predictions before a ball has been kicked for Arsenal, or any team for that matter, often overlook just how much can change over the course of a 38-game, nine month campaign. It’s hard to look that far ahead.

Various factors come into play. New signings can either flop or flourish. Managers can be relieved of their duties. Players can lose form, and players can gain form. Injuries can also strike.

One of the revelations of the season so far has been the consummate ease with which Takehiro Tomiyasu has taken to the Premier League. He’d barely had time to unpack his bags after signing on deadline day before being thrust straight into the lineup against Norwich for his debut.

He hasn’t looked back since.

With Takehiro Tomiyasu returning from injury, is his place as Arsenal’s right-back not as secure as we may think given Cedric’s impressive form?

Signed based on his specific profile, not only did Arsenal track down the right fit for the team, they brought in exactly the right man to fulfill that remit. Tomiyasu is professional, diligent, and adds qualities that few right-backs have brought into this team over the years.

With Calum Chambers and Cedric Soares initially battling for the reserve role, that responsibility eventually fell to the latter, who has since enjoyed a seven-game spell in the starting lineup, the longest he’s experienced in the Premier League since joining Arsenal.

Not here on merit, however, as he has filled in while Tomiyasu has nursed niggling calf injuries, the question is now whether he will keep it based on merit.

The bottom line is that he isn’t the better right-back. What adds credence to the question at hand is that Mikel Arteta has shown this season he is willing to reward those who take their chance. That side of his management has changed, and one need only look at Nuno Tavares and Gabriel Martinelli as examples this season of players who wrestled their way into recognition when opportunities presented themselves.

Cedric’s form can’t be ignored. It’s even got him back in the Portugal squad. Still guilty of inexplicable positioning or hopeless passes into danger, as well as an unshakable urge to always let the ball run across him, he’s put in three or four of his best displays for the club during this run and turned up with some clutch moments in defence that have kept points on the board.

His technical ability in tight spaces has been vastly improved, and greater attacking tendencies have seen the right-sided duo of Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka grow in potency. Tactically it’s prompted a slight tweak too, with Tierney less marauding on the opposite flank as Martinelli holds the left width, and having claimed 18 points from the last 21 available, the old adage of not fixing what isn’t broken comes to the fore.

Tomiyasu remains the more stable option. His physical prowess in the air and on the ground is backed up by stronger one-on-one defending and positional awareness. But in the current variation of this team, and based on Arteta’s meritocratic practices, the Japan international assuming his place in the side unchallenged is anything but cut and dry.

The all-round more complete right-back? Undoubtedly.

The casualty of someone else’s form and a manager’s tendencies? Well, perhaps so.