Kieran Tierney has struggled to see regular first-team opportunities in the Arsenal team so far this season. The Scotsman has featured in all of the Gunners Europa League fixtures but has been snubbed by Mikel Arteta for Premier League outings in favour of both Oleksandr Zinchenko and Takehiro Tomiyasu.
After joining the club from Celtic in 2019 for £25million he has since made 103 appearances scoring four goals and grabbing 13 assists in all competitions. Tierney, when fit, has comfortably been the first-choice left back at the club throughout the last three seasons.
However, following the arrival of Zinchenko in the summer, the 25-year-old has seen most of his Premier League minutes come from being brought off the bench with his only two starts in the league coming in the victories over Aston Villa and Brentford.
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It looked as though Tierney would return as first choice after Zinchenko suffered a calf injury at the start of October, but right back Takehiro Tomiyasu has been the man deployed on the left of the Gunners backline in their last four Premier League games, resulting in Tierney needing to take his opportunities in Europe to impress.
And he certainly seemed to do that during Arsenal's final group stage match against Zurich after the Scotsman opened the scoring with a perfectly executed left footed strike from 25 yards which flew into the bottom corner.
Alongside his goal, Tierney was also at the heart of a flowing move down the left combining with Eddie Nketiah which should have been converted by Fabio Vieira who latched onto Tierney's accurate ball into the box.
Speaking on BT Sport 2 at half time former Arsenal defender Martin Keown was full of praise for Tierney saying: "You see him celebrate, I think he's saying (to Arteta) 'don't forget me'. He's been told to be patient and he's been the outstanding player for Arsenal tonight."
Tierney's flowing display thus far at left back has likely sent a reminder to his manager of just what he can do, while it's very unlikely he will be preferred to Tomiyasu in the Premier League fixture, his performance may place him above the returning Zinchenko in the pecking order.
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