Inter Milan wanted to sign Takehiro Tomiyasu over the summer, but Arsenal rejected the approach for their in-form defender.

Fabrizio Romano reports that Arsenal are very happy with Takehiro Tomiyasu’s recent performances, which seem to have justified the decision they made on him in the summer.

Back in July, Inter Milan reportedly wanted to sign Tomiyasu, but Arsenal said no.

Manager Mikel Arteta and technical director Edu Gasper both wanted to keep the defender, and it’s currently turning out for the best that they did.

Tomiyasu was signed by Arsenal as a right-back, and it appeared that his chances of regular minutes had taken a hit as Ben White moved out to the right and Jurrien Timber joined the club.

But the Japanese 24-year-old has proven himself as a vital member of the squad all the same.

At the start of the season, Tomiyasu operated as a left-back, with Arteta playing an inverted right-back on the other side.

In September, Tomiyasu won Arsenal’s Player of the Match award operating as a centre-back against Brentford in the League Cup.

In early October, Tomiyasu played against Lens back at right-back to give White a rest.

And in the last week, Tomiyasu has played as an inverted left-back against Chelsea and Sevilla, again winning Arsenal’s Player of the Match award in the latter fixture.

So Tomiyasu has played as a left-back, a centre-back, a right-back, and an inverted left-back, and he hasn’t looked out of place in any of the four positions. More than that, he’s been Arsenal’s star man on at least a couple of occasions.

Whatever fee Inter Milan were offering couldn’t possibly have matched the value Tomiyasu is giving Arsenal right now.

Far from thinking about selling the defender, Arsenal fans will instead be worrying about how the squad will cope when he heads off to the AFC Asian Cup in January.