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Why Calum Chambers’ Performance is no cause for Concern at Arsenal
By Josh Sippie
Calum Chamber’s was awful against Liverpool. He looked like he had never played center back before. Maybe playing right back for so long threw him off a bit. Maybe he is still just young and naive or maybe he lacked confidence. Whatever the case, as a center back, you cannot give the ball away with such a high frequency as he did. You cannot be caught on the ball. Center backs should never be caught in possession.
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It all just went horribly wrong for young Calum Chambers. But there is absolutely nothing to fear, for several reasons.
First of all, Calum Chambers is only 20 years old. The fact that he even has a position on the first team is a testament to how much Arsene Wenger sees in him. These matches are all learning opportunities and he learned a lot from this game.
Secondly, you may recall another defender that looked absolutely lost in one of his first games as well: Hector Bellerin. Slotted in against Borussia Dortmund, the speedy Spaniard was abysmal and he never got better that match, Calum Chambers did in this match. Obviously it was not Chamber’s first match, but it was one of his first matches at center back, as Wenger had been playing him at right back.
Finally, this was a spot start. The odds that Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny are both out at the last minute again are incredibly slim. If one of them is out, Gabriel is the first go-to replacement, not Calum Chambers.
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It must be said that for all the colossal mistakes that the English center back made, he did show some promise and he gathered some composure towards the end. He ended up leading the team in successful clearances with 11 and aerial duels with 6. After an awful first half in terms of passing, with a completion percentage in the mid to low 70s, he raised it to a sturdy 81% by the final whistle (stats via WhoScored).
It was a bad performance. That is certain. But everyone is allowed a few bad performances. This does not mean that his development is way behind or that he is not what we expected. It just means that he was put in a tough situation that no one, including himself, thought he would be in and he struggled with it. There is nothing wrong with that. At the end of the day, training with your team mates is nothing compared to getting out on the pitch with the first team and he had not done that in the Premier League since around 2014, and not at center back since even before that.
Calum Chambers is still on track to becoming a great center back. He is the future of the position at Arsenal. We may not see him starting again for awhile but that is perfectly okay.
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