Calum Chambers hasn’t played for Arsenal for a long long time, but since the summer UEFA Under-21 Euros where he relegated Rob Holding to the England bench, it looks like he has now supplanted Holding in the pecking order at Arsenal. The 22 year-old went on loan to Middlesbrough last season and was very highly rated despite seeing the team relegated, but came back to the Gunners and signed a new contract before this season began.
But injuries have restricted his performances to a couple of matches in each of the League Cup and Europa League sides as he regained match fitness, and yesterday he was given his first League outing replacing the injured Monreal in the back three. Wenger thinks he is now ready to compete for a first team place. “He’s come back.” Le Prof said. “He’s been injured and now he’s back to full fitness. It’s a really good opportunity for him.”
It would appear that many Arsenal fans were not impressed with Calum, but to be fair it was never going to be easy to cope with players like Zaha and Benteke after coming back from injury and without being match fit, and there was little surprise that Palace scored two goals as they have in their last six home games.
Although he has been on the books at Arsenal for three years he is still very young at 22 and can only improve and get stronger with the right guidance. With Koscielny, Monreal and Mertesacker getting on a bit surely Wenger thinks that Chambers and Holding are the future of the Arsenal defence.
Do you think he could be good enough?
Sam P
“Our ambition is to win the EPL and the Champions League – Silent Stan Kreonke. Somebody put up a banner with this inscription as a reminder to the board.
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Personal musings on last nights game, in my order of importance to Arsenal. Firstly, the half and half celebration for Sanchez, here some members clearly want little to do with him -and who can possibly blame them – but others did celebrate.; namely Ozil, Mustafi, Xhaka, Kolasinac, Bellerin BUT notably not Jack, Koscielny among others. We may all make our own conclusions, as both Thierry and Souness did afterwards, and thet are of course correct in their thinking. Secondly, this split has come about entirely through Wenger dithering over offering proper money for Lemar way back last summer, which led to the disruptive Sanchez , reluctantly staying put and now playing when he wants-and as he certainly did last night – but not caring if the mood suits him. Thirdly , ALL club employers and esp those who play and are grossly paid the obscene wages most Prem players trouser, are duty and honour bound to try and to bust a gut for the cause, week in , week out. This is precisely the reason I loathe the despicable laziness and cowardice shown all the time by the abominable fraud, Walcott. Bizarrely, Sanchez , who up until this season bust a gut all the time , game after game, now (and rightly) gets dogs abuse but Walcott does not , or nowhere near what he deserves to get, at least. Fourth , it is now quite plain that when Sanchez and Ozil finally go, the most naturally talented player at Arsenal is Jack Wilshere and any manager not tying this dyed in the wool Gooner down right away to a new contact must be bonkers. Fifthly, our manager IS BONKERS AND MUST STILL GO, ASAP, whether or not he re-signs Jack. He is responsible for all our ills and splits in the dressing room. Contrast HIS dithering to the pro -active way all other Prem top six clubs managers behave. AND THEN WEEP! As for the game itself , yes, we played well , but that, by itself, is far less important than all my other points, which will affect our foreseeable future.
He worked well when Arsenal was against Palace and I feel he would improve if given more chances to start as a central back. He is good technically, tall and strong, despite he is not fast enough to be a fullback/ wingback.
Just one question… What was wenger smoking last night to ditch lacazette for cockrel?… Was he trying to tell palace dt we aren’t attacking anymore, come and threatened our frail defence?
I felt really sad for lacazette, a player with such passion and drive, hope wenger doesn’t end up turning him into d new Sanchez who gets gutted at d manager’s decision until he’s gutted out of form….
So really, what is wenger smoking? Very annoying man!!!…
Up next, westbrom… Hopefully, 3points on d cards.
Chambers? He’ll get better game by game.
I agree, I think Coquelin would have been better used down Chambers and Bellerins wing for extra protection v Zaha ..he was the danger so Wenger should have stuck Coq on him.
I don’t blame Chambers losing out to Zaha on that first goal, was more upset how some of our defenders didn’t pick people up in the box, I think he (Zaha) only had one or two to aim for.
But who was supposed to be marking them? No one according to the zonal marking system we use. So no one did mark them – and you saw the result. Go back to any match and watch this scenario repeated ad infinitum. Sickening.
I saw the good and the bad in his game, i think the main thing however that affected him in the second half was the yellow card he had in the first half, with skill players you have to be forceful and in their face and he could not do that in the second half risking a second yellow. I think Chambers is a more matured player and with additional and consistent game time will only improve.
Even after that yellow, Chambers did well in the 1st half, it was the 2nd half that he looked not so good. Maybe Wenger said something?
I do think Xhaka 2nd half form drop was a big part in Chambers looking not so good in the 2nd half, we tend to have this issue a lot, CM caves in and CBs are made to look like fools.
Think of Cazorla and how solid we looked at the back when we had our little magician wriggling out of our own half with the ball at his feet… Cazorla offered a level of intelligence that only Wilshere has shown since… but Wilshere is partnered with Xhaka and not a DM cause Wenger.
Yes, I think Chambers can step up.
He has shown great strength and good pace, idea for the CB we need, along with being a ball player.
I think he needs to be the playing regular though, learn his CB partners better and if we are going to persist with 3 at the back then he needs to learn the slight changes better. IMO we should focus on a back 4 as it also gets more out of Bellerin while Sead has said he prefers playing LB, Chambers could fit nicely on the rCB but we would need Kos to stay inform for the guidance…. Or buy a CB beast to command the backline (my preferred choice).
I would also put more blame on Xhaka as his form dropped in the 2nd half and that is where they pushed and applied pressure, in the 1st half Xhaka was more active and the 2nd he was being reactive which doesn’t suit his slow pace.
For me this is why a DM is more important than a CB, 1st half we looked better but Xhaka was performing, the 2nd half we looked more likely to let in goals but they was getting through the CM a lot more. If anything, Xhaka should be Wilshere backup, we need a DM and Xhaka is not a DM.
Shore up the CM would be my 1st signing, ensure that teams can not bypass our CM and trust that the CM can get the ball out of our own area. Wilshere doesn’t fail to convince me, Xhaka is the concern. IMO Wilshere could do even better with a solid DM alongside him.
Chambers was commandons against West Ham and personally thought he did well and never afraid to take initiative against Crystal Palace. In my opinion he was exposed by Bellerin so often by poor positioning by Bellerin…and being on a yelloe after tsking one for the transfett someone lost the ball setting up a dangeroud counter attack he showed good discipline in taking on Zaha.
On that form I like to see more of him in first team!
Bellerin is awful