Arsenal: Rob Holding demotion may last longer than expected

Arsenal certainly needed to change things up defensively after Leicester City, but the temporary Rob Holding demotion might grow in length.

Arsenal’s defense was thoroughly eviscerated against Leicester City and poor Rob Holding was one of the main culprits. The youngster looked a shadow of his heroic self last year, as his decision making was just abysmal.

His demise coincided with the return of Shkodran Mustafi, who took the young Englishman’s place. However, now things are going from bad to worse for Holding, who has sense been dropped to the U23s. Arsene Wenger was quick to justify the actions (as quoted by the Metro):

"We conceded three last week so I changed a bit because Mustafi came back and Holding had lost a little bit of confidence,’ revealed the Arsenal manager."

This knock down the totem pole won’t be easy to overcome for Holding, but it’ll be even harder if he continues down this negative trajectory. Starting for the Arsenal U23s, Holding again looked shaky in the center of a defense that surrendered three goals to Manchester City, despite pulling out a 4-3 win.

It’s hard to say that anyone looked better than anyone else when the defense as a whole was at fault, but Holding was certainly outdone by his team mates, as he was left on ice several times by City’s young attackers.

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It couldn’t have helped his confidence too much, and to make matters even more complicated, the man that Holding supposedly replaced, Calum Chambers, is back with the senior team and could very well vault ahead of his countryman in terms of appearances with the rotational squad in Cup competitions.

Couple that with Per Mertesacker‘s return to health and Laurent Koscielny‘s return from suspension and suddenly, Holding is looking like arguably the fifth or sixth option, depending on if Wenger insists on using Sead Kolasinac as a centerback.

Now, Holding is just 22 years old. So there is no reason to hit the panic button. But it won’t be easy to climb back into the first team picture. Not with the competition that is already there and not with the new firmness Wenger is using to weed out poor performers, of which Holding was one.

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All he can do now is keep the focus ahead of him, though. There will always be a way up for those that earn it, it’s just a matter of him now actually going out and earning it. Because the gift into the first team that he fell into last year ideally won’t be happening again.

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