Jurrien Timber replacement admits continuing fitness fear as Arsenal aim to improve squad depth

The end of the previous season brought with it a damning reality of how a lack of quality depth in certain positions can affect the likelihood of achieving your goals. Arsenal felt that with the almost simultaneous loss of Takehiro Tomiyasu and William Saliba in the Europa League clash with Sporting CP.

Both defenders being out for what turned out to be the rest of the season was without question the most mitigating factor in the team’s output and subsequent collapse of their Premier League title ambitions. The new season has allowed both players to return and they both featured in the opening-day win against Nottingham Forest.

However, the win was marred somewhat by an innocuous injury to Jurrien Timber. The man brought in to provide competition and depth to all the positions in the back four could be out for an unspecified amount of time.

Tomiyasu’s injury last season was far from his first. A calf injury in 2021/22 ruled him out for a prolonged period which proved damaging in the race for Champions League qualification.

He missed three Premier League games in November and December of last year before the injury against Sporting CP which cost him the remainder of the season. He underwent knee surgery and returned sooner than expected, even taking part in the preseason.

The 24-year-old spoke to football.london after the game and was asked if he’s now fully fit and without issues. There was a long pause, in what appeared to be quite a difficult question to answer it felt.

So pressed again on how he’d rate his fitness out of ten he was very honest in his response. “I don’t know,” he said. “It can be better you know?”

“I never say ten. I think I feel 100%, I never say ten. But I’m feeling good.”