The North London right-back derby – Emerson vs Tomiyasu

In Saturday’s 12:30 kick-off, I was able to watch Tottenham’s new right-back Emerson Royal get turned inside out as Viera’s Crystal Palace eased their way past Spurs. On the same day, I was lucky enough to witness Arsenal’s win over Norwich live at the stadium. During that game, Arsenal’s new right-back signing Takehiro Tomiyasu made his Arsenal debut. With seven aerial duels won, five recoveries made and zero times dispossessed, the Japanese defender got the standing ovation he deserved as he departed the pitch around an hour into the game. It’s pretty clear that Tomiyasu had the better debut of the two right-backs – who both signed for their respective clubs on deadline day last week. But in this piece, I’ll be further analysing which North London club got the better right-back.

Attacking

Clearly neither player is extremely attacking and scoring 10 goals a season. However it does seem like Emerson Royal offers slightly more going forward than Takehiro Tomiyasu. In Serie A last season, Tomiyasu scored twice for Bologna while Emerson Royal scored once and assisted four goals in La Liga last year for Real Betis. This means that over the last year, Tomiyasu averaged 0.06 non-penalty xG + xA per 90 minutes, while Emerson averages 0.10 per 90.

Another stat Emerson outperforms Tomiyasu in is shot-creating actions per 90. This essentially means how many times a pass or dribble the player has made has led to a shot. Per 90 minutes, Emerson averages 1.82 shot-creating actions while Tomiyasu only averages 0.86.

The final stat I want to use to compare the attacking threat of both full-backs is how many touches they average in the opposition penalty box per 90 minutes. Among all full-backs, Emerson is in the 85th percentile for this particular stat, averaging 2.44 touches per 90! For comparison, Tomiyasu is only in the 26th percentile with 0.94 touches per 90.

However, in last weekend’s games, it was Tomiyasu who actually offered the most attacking threat. He registered two shots, most notably his volley which only just flew over the bar. Obviously it is not worth reading into this too much, but Emerson Royal is yet to back-up his very promising attacking stats. It is also worth remembering that Tomiyasu played a lot of his games for Bologna at centre-back, impacting his ability to get forward.

Defending

Both players have very strong stats when it comes to defending. But neither player had great seasons last year, as Tomiyasu’s Bologna conceded 65 goals in Serie A, while Emerson’s Real Betis conceded 50 goals in La Liga. Obviously though, you can’t hold either player accountable for their team’s defensive failures.

In terms of pressures, interceptions and tackles, Emerson has brilliant stats to boast, ranking above the 90th percentile for each of these three stats. Per 90 minutes, he averages 16.88 pressures, 3.04 tackles and 2.07 interceptions. For comparison, Tomiyasu averages 11.82 pressures, 1.49 tackles and 1.68 interceptions. A very big difference.

However Tomiyasu’s strength lies in aerials won and clearances. He ranks in the 99th percentile for both stats! He has an average of 4.75 clearances and 3.65 aerials won per 90. For comparison again, Emerson averages 3.49 clearances and only 1.62 aerials won per 90. They are both of similar height (Emerson is 6ft, Tomiyasu is 6ft 1inch), but quite clearly Tomiyasu is superior when it comes to heading the ball.

Tomiyasu proved his aerial ability in his debut against Norwich, during which he won seven aerial duels while Emerson won one aerial and lost one. Emerson failed again to reproduce his fantastic defensive stats against Crystal Palace’s Wilfred Zaha, who time and time again dribbled past the brazilian. Tomiyasu had a much better debut defensively, as he helped Arsenal to their first clean sheet. However the difference in ability between Emerson’s opponent Zaha, and Tomiyasu’s opponent Tzolis has to be taken into account.

Fitting the system

The irony of both signings is that it seemed for a long time that Emerson was Arsenal’s main target and Tomiyasu was Tottenham’s right-back target. However it ended up the other way around. It seems like Emerson has the stats over Tomiyasu. However there is a very good reason Arsenal signed Tomiyasu in the end. Because he fits Arteta’s system.

Firstly, Arsenal have been lop-sided in attack for a long time now. The attacking threat of left-back Kieran Tierney is so strong that we constantly see him bombing forward on the left wing. So instead of signing an equally attacking-minded player on the other side, Arsenal have signed Tomiyasu, who can drop into a back-3 while Kieran Tierney stays forward. His defensive attributes also give more balance to the back line.

Secondly, one heavy criticism of the Ben White signing was his weakness in the air. In the opening fixture against Brentford, White was dominated in the air by Ivan Toney, and resulted in Arsenal losing the game. It is not very common for a full-back to be strong in the air, but Tomiyasu definitely brings this to the table. He showed that in the game against Norwich, and it’s something very important to have in our backline.

Verdict

If we are talking purely about stats and ability, Emerson Royal is probably the better right-back, even considering his disastrous start to life for Spurs. His attacking threat is far superior to Tomiyasu’s. Defensively, there is not much to separate the two right-backs though. It is also worth noting that Tomiyasu was about £10 million cheaper than Emerson Royal.

However, based on last weekend and taking all things into account, Tomiyasu is a perfect fit for Arteta’s system, and he seems to have adapted to the Premier League very well. I don’t think Emerson would work at Arsenal, so I’m glad in a way that we went for the Japanese player in the end. It’s fair to say both teams have very good right-backs on their hands, who are still very young and can improve. But, even with my Arsenal bias aside, I’d have to say Tomiyasu was the better deal.