Is Bellerin or Chambers now 1st choice for Arsenal?

Poor old Mathieu Debuchy. The Arsenal and France international right back suffered his second freak injury of the season, with little helping hand from the Stoke City player Marko Arnautovic. And if the Frenchman’s worst fears are confirmed then it could mean that his debut season as a Gunner will have been largely spent on the sidelines.

We all wish him well, of course, but Arsene Wenger has to focus on how best to cope in his absence. Luckily enough, for a change, the right back position is one which Arsenal do have decent options for. In a pinch, the manager could use Francis Coquelin or Mathieu Flamini, as they have both played there before and can do a job.

However, the choice must surely be between the two young Gunners, Calum Chambers and Hector Bellerin. It was clear that earlier in the season, Wenger rated the versatile former Southampton star as the better choice, but circumstances have worked in the Spaniard’s favour and he has managed seven starts so far this season, including three in the Premier League.

Bellerin has certainly gained a great deal of confidence from his appearances as well and been able to show Wenger and the fans what he can do, including some real attacking threat down the right flank combined with great pace and the energy to get up and down and not neglect his defensive duties.

But there is an argument that Chambers is the better4 defender and with a tough away game at Man City next up, Wenger could err on the side of caution. What do you think Gooners?

Tags Debuchy Man City Wenger

28 Comments

    1. I agree, and I even dare to predict that the lad will give Debuchy (and perhaps GIBBS) a good run for his money next year aswell. Chambers should definitely focus on the centre back role. That being said I think we won’t see Jenkinson back again either.

      Bellerin has a bright future as a player and I hope Wenger (and his successor) will recognize this. Seems to have a great personality aswell, friendly, modest but ambitious amd confident.

  1. City has fast wingers. We need Bellerin’s speed. Chambers will get burned out there by himself.

  2. Bellerin,chambers is too cumbersome and very easy to beat on one on one with a little bit of skill-a la montero. While bellerin may lack experience having play less games but have better acceleration,recover more quickly and also more better offensively. My only fear is that he is easily draw out of position,it will be on metersacker to communicate with him throughout the game to make him to always be on his toes for duration of 90 plus minutes. This may be his baptism of fire,but i am afriad

    1. This is why Koscielny stays back. Have you noticed the last two games? While Mertesacker is allowed to slowly come back, Koscielnly is the last one leaving our half. Besides, Coquelin is also more defensive than Arteta.
      Point is that we have absolutely nothing to lose in this game. I am sure everyone here in the begining of the season put this game at loses. So why not play Bellerin & Coquelin? Especially because they are doing just great now.

  3. juz dont get hammered will do….a 1 or 2 nil lost to city is considered a big improvement and a good result for our pathetic squad

  4. I would go with Bellerin because of his pace, the last game against stoke he played very well convincing enough to have another start.Football is a game of form not names please.

  5. Bellerin has real pace. Something we’ve lacked at right back since Lauren was playing during the Invincibles era. Big risk throwing him into the Man City game but Chambers is too much of a liability. Just hope he gives Clichy and Na$ri a little extra kick in every tackle whenever they’re on the wing.

  6. Bellerin no doubt… Chambers has made me so nervous game by game. He is so easily beaten with just straight forward tricks at RB. His body positioning when in a one on one situations with any half decent winger is terrible, he is easily turned.. And if that winger has just a little bit of pace then it’s good night on Chambers side..

    We have played him at CB too and still he does not look comfortable, and he just commits fouls in dangerous areas.

    We were all crying about him being tried as a DM, we saw what happened, he absolutely had no clue what he was doing in there, he looked do lost in midfield.

    So I am a little worried where his position is at the moment, but he might just be lacking in confidence due to the amount of games he has played so far, and he is still fairly very young and inexperienced, so not the right time to judge him I guess..

    1. I like Bellerin also, but I think we are being too hasty and forgetful about Chambers. It was not long ago every fan was praising Chambers as a wonderful acquisition.

      Clearly he has not benefitted from being thrust into different positions constantly and from the pressure and overuse due to Wenger’s def. acquisition negligence.

      When Wenger decides what his BEST position is (CB probably), he will settle in and again play as he did when he first arrived and he will then begin to mature from there. He is a fine talent and was simply overused due to Wenger’s incompetence.

  7. For RB, Bellerin is EMERGING as 1st choice, but it is all in flux and can change any time. Regardless, Chambers will likely get starts at RB and CB periodically.

  8. Is anyone else as fearful about Ozil’s return as I am??

    Wenger finally stopped the Ozil/Cazorla LW debacle and I fear greatly he will want to retry it – like continually returning to the cooler to see if 3 month old sour milk is getting any better.

    I don’t care who starts, just don’t put Cazorla or Ozil on the wing. I won’t watch it.

    1. Doubt it really. Wenger loves Wally. Once he is back to his best. There is no way Arsene will bench either Theo or a Sanchez to accommodate Mesut on the wing. He will have to rotate Ozil and Santi in that CAM position.

  9. Why the chambers bashing????
    everybody’s referencing the game montero got the better of him or games around that time.
    What you should remember is that chambers was doing extremely well and looked very comfortable tackling and wining duels in EPL (far beyond his age). around that time, we had no kosicelny and no debuchy, chambers also got sent off for some bad refereeing earlier and accumulated yellow cards. Im pretty sure he knew (and he was told) he had to play it safe n not risk getting sent off again or serving a ban (Im also pretty sure monetro was told to exploit chambers exactly because of this). Chambers was very important to us in those games to fill for both kos and debuchy, we couldnt risk him making even one challenge that a referee might blow for.

    Chambers is not a liablity. And chambers is quite fast too, not walcott fast but ivanovic type fast, not so fast where you could loose the ball or trip n fall, just fast enough to beat your man n keep the ball.
    As to who should play, im not sure, theyre both very good for their age, but their problem is exactly that, their age (theres no substitute for experience)
    I think if ox starts on RW then youll see chambers, they make a solid right flank both going forward and defending

    on the other hand you might see bellerin start so we can start the game with some edge and chambers comes in later on.

  10. I think Bellerin could/should easily be converted to a winger. sell walcott and move bellerin up lol (dont get angry because i said sell walcott, i love him too, but its probably gonna happen)

  11. @geogement, even the experience, they are almost of the same experience, in fact they are of the same age 19 (19)

  12. Bellerin. We are going for a win and we will win. Chambers as a CB cover as Monreal will play because of Gibbs injury. Le Coq must be fielded and not Flamini. These young boys are fearless. I have a feeling that we will win. And that will be so.

  13. Bellerin is a fast one. So is Afobe. They both beat Walcott’s 40m speed record. Bellerin has been actually better than chambers (in my opinion) than Chambers.

    However, when Debuchy comes back he is the man.

    I’m leaning towards Bellerin for city. Maybe Chambers and Koscielny in midfield against Villa or Brighton to see How that partnership works out.

    We still need another quality CB regardless. Someone who can also play LB would be ideal. We have Debuchy, Chambers, Bellerin (maybe Jenkison too). For LB we have Gibbs, monreal and sometimes Flamini.

    I have hated Wenger putting Monreal at CB. There were times when Wenger could have used Bellerin at RB and chambers at CB, but instead didn’t use Bellerin, put chambers at cb with Monreal. Monreal should only play LB.

    Keep CB for Mertsacker, Koscielny, Debuchy and chambers only.

    I have been impressed with Debuchy at CB recently. But prefer players to stay in their best positions for long periods. Changing often is not good for team consistency.

  14. @ The article writer:
    Do u have their stats comparison:
    Tackles won/Lost, Assists, one on one duels won/lost…etc

Comments are closed

Top Blog Sponsors