There is a growing appreciation among Arsenal fans and the football world in general for the quality of the summer signing from Bolton Wanderers Rob Holding. After an impressive pre-season he was thrown into the deep end for the Premier League opener against Liverpool because of the injury crisis and has kept his place since then.
He helped us to a much needed clean sheet against Leicester City last weekend, impressing the Gunners best defender Laurent Koscielny along the way and he stood up well again in the away win over Watford this weekend, showing a cool head and good technical ability to go with his defensive strengths.
Just like Calum Chambers, the player he has overtaken in the Arsenal team, Holding needs regular game time to hone his skills and become the best player he can be. My concern is that he is not going to get this time once the transfer deal to bring Shkodran Mustafi to the club from Valencia is done.
Of course we needed to sign a new centre back and we all wanted it to be a good one, but if Mustafi turns out to be of top quality then how is Holding going to gain the experience he needs? Man City’s new signing from Everton John Stones got the regular football that helped him become such a prospect but will Holding get it at Arsenal?
If not do you think he will join Chambers on loan once Gabriel is back from his injury lay-off?
Bob.