Arsenal: Calum Chambers stands to gain nothing at right back

Arsenal sent Calum Chambers to rightback for unknown reasons against Newcastle, which is just a dead end at this point. What the hell was Wenger thinking?

Hindsight is 20/20. But from the moment they revealed that Arsenal starting XI against Newcastle, I had two questions and two questions only – why was Sead Kolasinac not starting over Nacho Monreal and why was Calum Chambers at right back?

This defense was a crap fest, and I’m sorry (I’m actually not), but that falls on Arsene Wenger. He puled on all of his slowest defenders, bar Per Mertesacker, and he got exactly what you would expect from that – torched.

This team was absolutely embarrassed as a determined Newcastle United took the fight to a stale, lifeless Gunner’s side.

Let’s hone in on Chambers though, because it’s his usage that really blew my mind. Here you have a 23-year old who has been doing tremendous when called upon in the center of the defense. Aside from his shocker against Ostersunds, there has been nary a flaw to speak of, and certainly not a poor outing.

He has shown that he deserves the added consideration that he has been given, and as the rotation was shaping up, he was the third centerback on the totem pole, always ready to slip in to the Premier League set-up when called upon.

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Yet here we were at a Premier League match and, rather than letting the rotation do it’s thing and allow Ainsley Maitland-Niles play rightback, for some semblance of speed, Wenger instead opted to relegate Chambers away from his earned home at centerback to play rightback.

Guess what we learned? That Chambers still isn’t a rightback.

Which we knew from countless times seeing this same thing. I understand that Wenger sometimes plays guys out of position to help them learn a thing or two. But Chambers is passed that part in his career. He held down a Premier League defense at Middlesbrough and has patiently waited while earning his place in the center of defense. There is nothing left to be learned from playing out of position.

So why was it done? All I can think of is pure tractical ineptitude. Some belief that Chambers is the defacto rightback fill-in, when in fact, he should be nowhere on the pitch outside of centerback.

That’s what I can’t wrap my head around. You have such a talented young centerback and you need that talent because centerback has not been a strong position this year. Yet you shake things up just for the sake of shaking.

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I guess Rob Holding deserves to see some light too, but if that’s the case, a back three would make more sense than whatever the hell was cobbled together against Newcastle.

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