I assume that most, if not all, of the Arsenal fans that use this site have heard what our young Spanish right back has been saying about the strength in depth in the Arsenal squad and there being enough quality among the fringe players and the young Gunners to be able to step up and cover for the ones that have picked up an injury.
If you have not yet read his interview on the Arsenal website I can pretty much guarantee that you will not be as confident as Bellerin is about the players coming in being good enough for Arsene Wenger not to miss the likes of Alexis Sanchez, Santi Cazorla and Francis Coquelin.
The Spaniard said, “I have said it before, there is great depth in the team. There are a lot of young players in the team waiting to come through, and we have a lot of quality training with us every day.
“They are ready to step up so obviously every single player on the bench can do the same job as every single player in the starting XI. We don’t need to worry about [the injuries to Alexis and Koscielny]. The only thing we need to do is go out onto the pitch with the right mentality, it does not matter who we play.
“The conditions weren’t the best but Norwich are a well-organised team who were very solid at the back and dangerous on the counter. We should have played our game better than we did.
“We made some mistakes that cost us the game and we need to look at ourselves and realise that this is not the way. We need to push ourselves a bit more and play better football if we want to be at the top. What happened on the pitch was not a great experience but we need to try and bounce back so we are ready for the next game.”
I do understand the defender’s confidence because this is exactly what happened with him last season and when he got a chance to play a decent run of games he did step up and is now one of the best around. Not only did that displace the player Wenger had signed as Sagna´s replacement, Mathieu Debuchy, but it also left Calum Chambers out in the cold.
And he is the player that might benefit the most from our latest injury crisis if, as looks likely, the boss plans to play him in Coquelin’s position. Chambers impressed for the under 21s there on Monday and I would not be surprised to see him start against Sunderland.
He has great talent and has already shown versatility in playing right back and centre back, but can he prove himself a good enough DM to challenge Coquelin for a first team place as Bellerin did last year?