Vieira's hopeless excellence and Tomiyasu's mediocrity are two signs of Arsenal's progress under Arteta

Fabio Vieira was excellent but no amount of his excellence will be enough to force Arteta's hand at Arsenal. Takehiro Tomiyasu was not excellent.

Takehiro Tomiyasu and Fabio Vieira expected to be more involved for Arsenal this season. Tomiyasu has started four Premier League games despite Cedric Soares being the only recognized competition for his right-back spot. Viera has started just one Premier League game after his £30million move from Porto. Neither explained their rivals' brilliance in the first XI.

Ben White only played his second game as a right-back for Arsenal in the opening day win over Crystal Palace and has remained in that role ever since. His form, coupled with the strength of the centre-backs alongside him, meant there was no need for Mikel Arteta to drop White from the squad or move him centrally into a more natural position.

Tomiyasu could well be in the Premier League's starting line-up had he not been injured at the start of the season, although it's hard to believe he's ever been in possession of that jersey judging by his performance on Monday night.

With the way Oxford filled the center of the field and stuck as closely as possible to Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli, the full-backs, and Tomiyasu in particular, had the most room to create. The Japan international didn't do much with those opportunities, with crosses hitting early defenders and seemingly obvious forward options ignored.

Tomiyasu perhaps illustrates better than anyone the progress Arsenal have made over the past year. He was one of the shining lights under Arteta following his move from Bologna, starting 15 Premier League games on the rebound after joining in the summer of 2021. Now he's a serviceable sub at best.

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Vieira is close and yet so far from Arsenal's best XI. He is probably the most technically gifted player in the team who does not play week after week in the Premier League. It was easy to see against Oxford that Vieira could be a very productive influence in the Premier League. He has a knack for finding space and the ability to grab balls in those tight spaces of a defensive back.

He was so rarely found in those spaces in the first half, how much of a problem it seemed for Vieira, as it is for anyone looking to prove their Premier League worth in games national cups, would be having to play alongside your teammates with even less chance of moving up a gear.

Vieira would have been much better if he had played with Thomas Partey and Granit Xhaka rather than Albert Sambi Lokonga and Mohamed Elneny. And he looked really good anyway.

He produced a superb free-kick, which was beautifully curled over Elneny's head for the game's first goal, before using a pocket of space to slip a perfect pass past the defense for Eddie Nketiah scores the second.

He is an excellent footballer currently facing what seems like a hopeless task. There is nothing more difficult than replacing Martin Odegaard, the club's captain and arguably Arsenal's best player this season.

Vieira's performance against Oxford made no difference to Arteta's selection against Tottenham. If the first teams are fit, Vieira will not start the North London derby.

That is of course the danger of signing for a brilliant team, but Vieira may feel aggrieved that the team he signed for was half as brilliant when he arrived as it is now . But it's great for Arteta and Arsenal, for whom losing Odegaard wouldn't be a complete disaster.

The excellence of one substitute and the apparent inferiority of another are both clear indicators of progress under Arteta, not that we really need further evidence of that.