Arsenal: Centerback not a part of needed revolution

Arsenal have a lot of things that need changing, and defense may have topped that list at one point, but it damn well might have fallen clean off it.

Arsenal’s defense has been in shambles at times this year. They’ve been ransacked, cut open and stitched back together using crude staples that are in no way convincing. The primary culprits have been an ineffective midfield paired with the aggressive defending duo of Shkodran Mustafi and Laurent Koscielny.

It was pretty clear that this summer, they would need to address the situation via money spent. There was no way around it, these centerbacks were not compatible and it wasn’t going to get better, as Koscielny seemed to be getting worse and the two young’uns, Calum Chambers and Rob Holding, were trapped behind an ineffective starting XI.

Things have changed recently. As Chambers has found more opportunity, he has also found more success. Every single match he looks more and more comfortable.

In the process, the Gunners have started to look conclusive defensively. Mustafi and Chambers have combined well each time they take the pitch and, if you look at arguably then best defensive show of the season – against Chelsea – it was a threesome of Mustafi-Holding-Chambers that held down that defense and stood strong.

That is a young, quality defense with a ceiling that we can’t even see yet.

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But potential is cheap. Turning that into Premier League quality is the difficult part. Thankfully, Chambers is there. If you go into next season with a starting back two of Mustafi and Chambers, I am 100% happy. We have a couple more months to prove that this is the way forward, but all of the foundation pieces are being set in place. This is a real solution in the developmental stages.

Then you have Koscielny behind them, who is still perfectly quality in a smaller role, perhaps a European competitions role, and Holding behind that. Holding can take on the Chambers role from this year and grow into the role as the season goes along and as opportunity pops up.

Sounds great, right?

Then there is Mavropanos, who, given five more months with the team, may start to sneak more and more into the first team picture and assume the Holding role that Holding vacated to take the Chambers role.

Time is a premium developer, and everyone in this picture is going to get better and better with the time that they have. Koscielny is the swing vote. He’s the wildcard. Meaning that this defense going into next year, if executed properly, can start to look even better than the defense this year.

If you want to sign a centerback. Sign a Daniele Rugani. A competitor, but not a bank-buster. Sign someone young, who can threaten and grow, but don’t steal the first team role from Chambers.

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It may not sound like much in a time where we want a revolution. But just because a revolution is needed doesn’t mean you have to buck the entire system. Keep what’s working. Keep faith in what is getting closer and closer to working. Believe it or not, that includes this defense.

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