Former Sunderland man, Kevin Phillips was impressed with Calum Chambers’ performance in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg against Liverpool last week.
The full-back has been out in the cold for much of this season following the summer arrival of Takehiro Tomiyasu.
Cedric Soares also appears to be ahead of him in the pecking order at the Emirates.
He was brought on as a replacement for the Portuguese star against Liverpool after Soares was stricken.
Chambers delivered a solid performance. If new contracts are given to players because of their showing in one match, Chambers could have earned one.
Phillips insists the full-back rose to the occasion against the Reds but maintained that his future is probably away from the Emirates.
The former striker tells Football Insider: “Chambers really rose to the challenge against Liverpool, he was brilliant. Is he the future of Arsenal? I’m not so sure, but he’s a player Arteta can rely on.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Chambers has had more than enough time to prove his quality at Arsenal, but he hasn’t exactly taken the opportunities presented to him.
He has put in some very fine performances for the club occasionally, but there is always inconsistency in his game.
As Arsenal rebuilds, he is one player we need to offload, and his performance against Liverpool may have won him more admirers among other EPL sides.
Not so sure? shouldn’t the fact that he doesn’t see the field unless both Tomi and Cedric are unavailable tell you everything you need to know
Note really sure what happened with Chambers? He was never going to be a world beaten but he has always been decent enough to be a squad player but get’s zero game time.
Wasn’t even used in cup games over the last couple years. Again, for me this is very poor asset management….if you don’t want a player then sell them instead of letting their contracts/value decrease.
Agree with PJSA – not a first choice but an adequate squad player who deserves more run outs in lesser games than he gets. There’s a ton of players I’d release before him – Cedric being top of the list. No idea why MA starts Cedric before Chambers, who is a 100% tryer. And English, which helps the squad quota.
I feel a bit for Calum really, he had started to settle quite well into Arteta’s early selections and was playing well on the right side of the back 4 but in a home game against Chelsea he sustained a very serious injury requiring surgery and therefore was out of action for a long time
He finally came back and was playing regularly well at right back towards the end of last season, and we did finish the season quite well but appeared to be a casualty from the opening game against Brentford and our very early season form
We may have bought Tomi anyway but I think in doing so it kind of put the lid on Calum’s Arsenal future and he is now a useful squad player, no more
Always liked the guy in an Arsenal shirt though