Arsenal: A peek at the future offers an exciting prospect

Arsenal hosted West Ham United in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night. While a desperate affair, there was one glimmer of light: The centre-half partnership of Calum Chambers and Rob Holding.

Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker have anchored the Arsenal defence for many years. The former was signed in the summer of 2010, gradually breaking into the first team during his first season in North London; Mertesacker was signed just a year later, quickly forming a strong relationship with Koscielny that would progress for several seasons.

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However, both are now the wrong side of 30, Mertesacker is set to retire at the end of the year, taking up a role as head of the academy, and Koscielny has begun to show signs of his age this season, with several performances lacking the same natural athleticism or previous years, perhaps with his bum Achilles starting to cause him trouble.

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Arsene Wenger needs to plan for life without the pair. Currently, the Gunners do not have a starting centre-half, other than Shkodran Mustafi, who is in and around their prime age — the German is 25. All they have is experienced veteran players like Koscielny, Mertesacker, and Nacho Monreal, who is an adopted full-back, and prospective youngsters. In theory, it would be a lot to thrust those youngsters into regular starting roles in the Premier League. In practice, though, it may be a very different scenario.

The two youngsters I am referring to are Calum Chambers and Rob Holding. Both are currently 22 — Chambers turns 23 in January — and have been touted as future starters at the heart of the Arsenal defence. But neither has had extensive experience as starting players under Wenger and there is a degree of trepidation in playing young players at a position that requires such a great stability and security of thought.

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Having said that, on Tuesday night, in the 1-0 win over West Ham United in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup, Chambers and Holding started alongside each other in a back-four for the second time this season. For the second time, they kept a clean sheet.

The other clean sheet came against BATE Borisov in the Europa League just a few weeks beforehand. Over the two games, Arsenal conceded just 12 shots. Of those 12, only two were on target. Moreover, on Tuesday, West Ham had just one shot in the whole game. It came from a free-kick and was lashed wide in an ugly fashion.

Now, the defensive solidarity and resolve that Chambers and Holding have shown in both games should be tempered by the quality of the opposition that they were playing. West Ham, for example, were utterly anaemic in attacking areas. Misplaced passes, loose first touches, a lack of movement. There was a dearth of creativity and quality. But Chambers and Holding can only play the opposition that is put in front of them. And to that end, they were excellent.

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Arsenal have certainly not had a wealth of talent at the centre-half position throughout Wenger’s tenure. Even with Mertesacker and Koscielny present, it has often been a key vulnerability that opposing teams have exploited. So seeing two talented, composed, decisive defenders rise through the ranks is wonderful to see. Let’s hope they can now begin to push into the starting XI.

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