Arsenal: Has Calum Chambers now usurped Rob Holding?

Calum Chambers started his first Premier League game of the season for Arsenal against Crystal Palace on Thursday night. Has he now usurped Rob Holding in the pecking order?

The return to the back-three was somewhat surprising. Arsene Wenger, while still persisting with the seemingly unnatural system, admitted that he preferred a back-four. So when he reinstated it midway through December, most assumed that it was here to stay. Well, not so, apparently.

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Arsenal played with a back-three against Crystal Palace on Thursday night, even though Nacho Monreal was ruled out with an ankle issue. His replacement was Calum Chambers, who slid into the defence on the right side of the back-three, with Laurent Koscielny flipping over to the left side.

And after the win, Chambers, when asked about where he feels his best position, which is a significant issue given his versatility and flexibility, revealed that he is most comfortable when positioned on the right side of a back-three:

"“Yes, that’s the position I like, the right side of a back three or if we play a back four then the right side of that, those are the positions I like centrally. The amount of games I get, the more experience I get and more nights like tonight it’s just great experience for the whole team really.”"

Before the 2016/17 season, Chambers was actually loaned out with Wenger unsure of how much game time he would be able to offer the young defender, something that is vital to his development. The man who had usurped in the pecking order was Rob Holding, a similarly young, prospective centre-half who had been signed in that summer window for £2 million.

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At that point, it was fair to assume that Holding was seen as the readier of the two. He played fairly regularly throughout the year, with Wenger trusting him in games like the FA Cup semi-final and final, and entered this season as a highly-thought-of talent. However, upon Chambers’ return to the squad, after a consistent and successful loan season at Middlesbrough, he has now seemingly re-overtaken Holding.

His very playing against Palace was a welcome surprise. The general thinking was that Holding, not Chambers, would have been the one to come in. But with Chambers starting, and expected to start again on Sunday with Monreal still absent, the Southampton graduate has a chance to establish himself as a regular starter.

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It remains to be seen how Wenger views his two young centre-halves moving forward. But the rivalry between the two will only spur the other on. Competition within the squad always helps, and that is exactly what Arsenal have in Holding and Chambers.