This article was originally published on Fabrizio Romano’s Daily Briefing, a subscription service. If you would like to receive Fabrizio Romano’s exclusive articles via email ahead of publication on caughtoffside.com, please sign-up for the service here: thedailybriefing.io
What a game between Arsenal and Liverpool yesterday! It’s an important, crucial win for Arsenal. Once again they do a great job playing big games at home, this is crucial. Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka are two wonderful players, but in general I think Arsenal’s mentality is improving. I still see Liverpool absolutely strong in the title race, they were also pretty unlucky yesterday.
Following that result, I have more big news for Arsenal, and that’s that Takehiro Tomiyasu has now agreed to sign a new contract at the Emirates Stadium. The agreement is now in place, everything is ready, and an announcement is imminent.
It’s just time to complete the paperwork, but Tomiyasu is going to be the next important player to sign a new deal at Arsenal, following on from others like Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka and William Saliba in recent months.
There was interest from clubs in Italy and elsewhere in the last months, but there was no chance for Tomiyasu to leave – Arsenal wanted to continue with him, and soon it’ll be time for this new deal to be made official. Here we go!
One final point as well on Jorginho, who was voted player of the match against Liverpool – despite rumours, it was never a concrete possibility to see Jorginho leaving Arsenal in January. Interest is always there but never negotiations or talks. I think he remains a good, experienced player able to help in the rotations and in the end, he was a good, smart signing for Arsenal.
Manchester United also enjoyed a good win yesterday as their talented young attacking players shone in the win over West Ham, but what about another top young talent who left the club in January?
Some Man United fans were a bit surprised to see Isak Hansen-Aaroen leave without getting more of a chance in the first-team, but I wasn’t really surprised as we saw that United, like other clubs, were ready to cash in on young players.
Also, it’s important to clarify that Man United have matching rights for the future potential move of Hansen-Aaroen, so they can keep some kind of control on the player.
I’ve also been asked about stories involving Bruno Fernandes rejecting Saudi interest in January, however I’m not aware of this, it was never a possibility. Bruno was always very clear, he always wanted to stay at Manchester United last summer and it was the same in January.
It was not a good day for Chelsea yesterday as Wolves came from behind to earn a surprise 4-2 win at Stamford Bridge. Cole Palmer scored to give the Blues a good start, but things then fell apart…so what’s going wrong for Mauricio Pochettino’s side?
The truth is, it almost feels too long to discuss – there are many things that need to be fixed. Personally, I keep thinking Chelsea needed more experienced players and not only youngsters. They have signed some top talents for the future, but some experienced players would also really help the squad in difficult moments, it’s crucial.
Pochettino also made the interesting choice to bench Mykhaylo Mudryk. I’d always play Mudryk because I believe he has huge potential, but I’m not training the squad every day as Pochettino does, so I think we have to respect this decision and see if the situation can change.
Staying with Chelsea, I’ve been asked how concrete the links were with Nordi Mukiele towards the end of January, but I can say there were no talks with Chelsea, news not confirmed. Bayern wanted Mukiele, as I reported at the time, but PSG were not open to accepting a loan move with buy option, they asked for an obligation or different conditions – that’s why the deal did not happen.