Arsenal: Calum Chambers provides one unmistakable sign of quality

Arsenal were finally able to welcome back Calum Chambers against Doncaster Rovers and they left with a clear picture of what to expect from him.

Arsenal ran with the back three against Doncaster with the rotational squad, this time employing the director Per Mertesacker in the middle, flanked by the young and capable duo of Calum Chambers and Rob Holding.

I have to say, I have been playing up the prospects of Rob Holding in the first team since his loan was up. I’ve been getting all antsy in my pantsy to see him back on the defense because of the high note that he had left us on.

Again, I don’t know how many times I have pointed this out since it happened, but when he had to come on in an emergency situation for Laurent Koscielny against Leicester City in their title-winning year, I saw all I need to see. He shut down Riyad Mahrez, the PFA Player of the Year, and Jamie “I turned down Arsenal and am still bragging about it” Vardy in two separate one on one situations.

Then he anchored a relegated Middlesbrough defense while maintaining one of the most surprisingly solid defenses in the Prem.

There were so many signs pointed to his quality and those signs were highlighted by the monetary evaluation of Chambers by Arsene Wenger in the transfer window.

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Finally, he was back, and he showed up. He was coordinating the defense just as much as the big German and his confidence with and without the ball was simply impeccable. There was not a single mistake on his part as he looked every bit up to scratch and ready to start tapping on Nacho Monreal‘s shoulder, asking how much longer he thinks he’ll be here.

The unfortunate part about the return was that it was cut short due to injury and, according to Arsene Wenger, Chambers will miss another couple of weeks.

But in the process of moaning over this prospect, we were given one unmistakable sign of quality. I would argue one of the most unmistakable signs out there – when he left, he was missed. Hard to argue with a guys quality when the team visibly suffers in his absence.

Arsenal’s game changed at half, as the defense looked much shakier and less coordinated and the only difference was that Chambers was gone. Not just that, but did anyone else notice how well he was passing? He was shooting balls over the top of the defense and it was stretching the Rovers out massively. That, too, was drastically missed in the second half.

Next: 5 Things Learned Against Doncaster Rovers

That’s a bit too much correlation for me to call it a coincidence. Chambers was tying that defense together and in his departure and the arrival of an academy midfielder, things changed for the worse.

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