Well what an amazing story we have had this year, with Arsenal buying a young unknown defender from Bolton called Rob Holding, and Arsene Wenger was ridiculed for bringing in a lower League English player for only 2 million GBP. How much has those people had to eat their words, as the 21 year-old has exceeded all expectations and has become a regular in the Gunners First XI as we have had an amazing run with Wenger’s new formation.
He ended the season playing the whole 90 minutes of our FA Cup Final win over Chelsea, and he is finding it quite hard to believe himself. He said after the game: “When we were celebrating at the end, I just sat down and thought, ‘Last year I was devastated at Derby when I got relegated with Bolton’,” he said on Arsenal.com. “To go from that to winning the FA Cup in the space of a year is crazy.
“I’m lost for words really. When the final whistle went, it was a crazy feeling. I never thought I’d experience it but we got the job done. Hopefully there’s more to come.”
Holding, who had had only 9 League starts all season, and Per Mertesacker who only made one subs appearance before lining up alongside Holding at Wembley this week, kept the League’s best attacking force, including the scary Diego Costa and the mesmerising Eden Hazard, down to just one goal in the Cup Final. He was unsurprisingly proud of their performance. “If he gets one in 90 minutes, I’ve done my job,’ he said. “They’re a strong team as we’ve seen over the season and they’ve won a lot of games in the Premier League. We knew it would be a tough game but we managed to keep our high intensity, pressed them high and didn’t let them play.
“It’s the first time Per and I have played with each other apart from in training. A guy like Per has won the World Cup so he’s going to make it comfortable for me as well. He’s a quality player.”
Holding may not end up as our best signing of last summer, but he will definitely be known as our best value buy for many a year!
Admin
At such a young age, his composure on the field must be commended, he doesn’t get overshadowed by d big occasions. I tink we have a rare gem in our hands which if properly managed would turn out world class. thumbs up to Rob Holding
He is Tony Adams without the Vodka.
Roberto Holdihnho…. Am sorry he didn´t cost 55 million pounds. One of the greates managerial lines ever.
Spot on Galen…. I have read zero comments from the Naysayers on this site about what a great buy he was and decision to use him in the new back 3 formation! Whilst he may not be a better player than Mustafi ( or is he?) he certainly played better than him.
Off topic – anyone who has played sport knows you never say things are going well… from the interview Mustafi did when he said that he lost next 3 in a row, played crap and got injured… just saying!
I recal AW making that comments after a match in which RH had put up a fantastic performance. As much as you may hate AW, you have to give it to him…..we had no business winning the last FA cup witih the defensive crisis we ran into a week prior. He recognixed the talent, went for him, got him, kept him in shape and when we lost the regulars (Kos, Mustafi, Gabriel) …AW threw in a joker ( and of course, Mert4) who got the job done brilliantly. If you had to face Diego Costas, Eden Hazards etc of this world and matched them hands down with RH & Mert4- coming out victorioius. It’s worthy of recognition. Thumbs up for the clash all day long.
Seriously, Per Mertesacker though. Still can’t believe that performance, they all played well but that performance by him was unbelievably awesome. Since the days of Sol Campbell Tony Adams I have not seen a better CB performance by an Arsenal CB. The fact he only played thirty odd minutes is surprising, but if he had 45 games behind him I’d still say wow, f**k me were did that come from. He reminded me of how inspirational Patrick Vieira was, a total authority, 10/10.
Playing in the middle of The back 3 suits PER. He can just rely on his positioning and composure . Even David Luis looks like Maldini playing in the middle .
PER can use his positional sense and leadership to coordinate the rest of the back 3. Wenger may just have extended his playing career by 3 more years. Bn out for 1 year can also give you the opportunity to evaluate your game and mistakes . PER seems like a smart guy.
Holding is a superb and all that, but imo the praise is enough already!!! I advise caution…
what a find by wenger and his scouts
2 million and so proficient at that age
fantastic
I swear because of this kid I don’t want Van dyke or anyone , this kid would make it. If he played for everton or Southampton we would have been talking about spending £50 million on a young CB that can play for us for the next decade . We already have him.
my friends also tell me the polish Cb krystian Bielik is going to be world class . Loads of dude who watch the championship had amazing things to say about him . Chambers had a great season as well with Middlesbrough.
I think we are are sorted at CB .
We still need an experience and quality centre back to provide competition and rotation
I don’t think we do . I rather we spend 70% of our transfer budget in a striker. Enough with this experiment
Gervinho Giroud podolski sanogo perez welbeck , park Chi young etc
Koscielny , PER , Mustafi , Holding , Gabriel and Chambers is enough CB . That is 6 plus Monreal and Kolasanic who can play there.
I think I agree with you Galen, our CB isn’t the worst and if we could look at it from the outside instead as fans, I bet we would be jealous and wanting to pick faults.
I think Monreal will move into the middle and be the left sided CB more often, leaving the LWB for Gibbs and Kolasanic. RWB we have Bellerin and The Ox. Our Def can last for 12 months.
I do think as well that 70% ish of our budget should go towards a top CF, the other 30% to a def B2B CM. Tolisso and Lacazette, let’s see if they will reject £100mil for them both. Oops, £93ish mil, not forgetting that young Henry from Nigeria.
Kos is ageing, holding.is inexperience, chambers is still not ready, per is slow, monreal is not a proper cb
Lets spend some money and get a proper quality cb, winger, dm, rb and striker
Agreed I think we are sorted at the back. Per after this performance is back in our plans. I see Holding playing more this season while Kos will be rotated more often. Gabriel and Mustafi need to step up big time. We need to keep Monreal purely because he is so versatile. We need to keep Perez. I would play Perez in all Europa league matches but we still need a top class striker.
@Galen: I agree with you that buying a CB may be counterproductive as we are already blessed and sorted in that department for a good number of years to come. Our focus should be on a proven 20+ goals striker and a replacement creative midfielder to take over from our ageing magician Santi Cazorla. Having said that, we must keep hold of Alexis and Ozil! Up the Gooners.
Even D Costa wouldn’t F with Holding on Saturday. He gave Rob major respect all game. If RH becomes more vocal he’ll be Arsenal captain for the next 15 years.
Wenger out!
What’s with Wenger Out crap? There are plenty of (garbage) posts by Konstantin where you can voice your opinion. This isn’t one of them.
Maybe Rob was unknown in London last season, but that says more about London!
I don’t know, I still feel we need a quality CB just to take us to the next level. but a cm and striker should be the priority
We need a article on xhaka as well.. He don’t seem to get the praise he deserves both on here and in the media.. I suspect its because he’s not English
Back to mediocrity.. Clubs with better players than holding are looking fir reinforcements and you think you don’t need one. Deluded coach, deluded fans
Examples?
Xhaka is settling down faster than I thought, there were times I thought Xhaka was Ramsey due to his style and movement. I think once he settled well with team mates, his freedom and true character will come out
I think he was the signing of the season for us. All our signings had there shortcoming and maybe they were adapting to pl. The only reason he can’t be the signing of the season is because of the number of appearances but i reckon he was our best player among the signings
I think the Back is settled now with the change of formation,
Holding Koschilmy and Mustafi- Solid Back3,
Right wing Bellerine LW- Monreal
Reserve Defence
Back 3 of Gabrial-Mertazakar- Gibbs-
Right wing OX, Left wing- Kolasanic
Mid filed -XHaka looks settled. Ramsey
or Cazorla and Coqualan
Now we need some one like Lukakau
A front 3 of Sanchez Oail and Lukakau will destroy Opposition.
We need to Heavy goal scorer, One we alreday have and got to keep him-Sancez
If get a striker who can score 20 plus goals then we can challange
Naah paps… not Gibbs in a back 3.. Just, NO