Cedric Soares ‘not afraid’ of Takehiro Tomiyasu return in confident Arsenal vow

Cedric Soares insists he does not fear competition from Takehiro Tomiyasu as the Arsenal defender closes in on a return to action.

The Japanese international has played a huge part in Arsenal’s progress this season, impressing at right-back since moving from Bologna in August.

Largely, Tomiyasu had established himself as a first-choice under Mikel Arteta, starting 16 games in comparison to Soares’ 9.

A calf issue, however, has kept the summer signing out of action since January, allowing Soares to stake a claim to feature in Arteta’s starting lineup on a more regular basis.

Tomiyasu be in contention to feature as Arsenal head to Crystal Palace on Monday night, a game they need to win to keep the pace with bitter rivals Tottenham after their 5-1 win over Newcastle on Sunday.

Arteta’s side do boast two games in hand but have fallen behind Spurs on goal difference with a trip to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium still to be scheduled.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Soares stressed he was confident of keeping his starting berth.

“I will do my job and Tomi will as well,” he said.

“He was fit in the last one or two weeks but the coach kept me on the team. So it’s his [Arteta’s] call in the end.

“I’m not afraid of competition. If you look at my career, you can see the number of big names I had in front of me and sometimes I turned it around and sometimes I didn’t.”

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