Arsenal: Calum Chambers still benefiting from Middlesbrough loan

Arsenal haven’t had a lot of luck with loans in recent years, but Calum Chambers loan to Middlesbrough proved to be the definition of a productive move.

So, Arsenal’s defense was pretty shambolic last season. They surrendered over 50 goals, which is something that I hope we never have to suffer through ever again, as fans. But in the midst of that rubble stood Calum Chambers, like a stoic young stalwart, doing all he could to hold it together.

When we first acquired Calum Chambers, he had some key flaws – he was too slow on the ball, he didn’t seem to understand urgency and, when pressed into making a split-second decision, he often chose poorly.

In short, he had a lot of developing to do in order to make that leap to the top level.

Watching him get shredded by Liverpool at the start of the 2016/17 season alongside Rob Holding must have been the final stray for the higher-ups at Arsenal. Chambers had to be sent somewhere else, because he wasn’t learning here.

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Finding Middlesbrough couldn’t have worked out any better. Chambers was plugged into the center of an under-siege defense, where he was forced to sink or swim. He constantly had to deal with attacks that were far more equipped to carry on long sieges of this surprisingly stoic defense.

One of the reasons why the Boro defense held tight, despite ending up relegated, was that Chambers was figuring it out. When you are constantly under pressure, you have to adjust, and Chambers did. He didn’t dally on the ball, he became a “no nonsense” guy and he worked his confidence with the ball into competence.

Then he brought that same philosophy back to Arsenal, where he was again thrown into a defense that was far too often put under siege by determined attacks. Chambers undoubtedly found it to be similar to his time at Boro, and, given the similarities, he was able to hold tight and assert himself, which won the trust of the boss, who played him more and more as the season went on.

Being able to handle that pressure is what made Chambers stand out over guys like Rob Holding, Shkodran Mustafi, even Laurent Koscielny, who suddenly lost his composure for no apparent reason.

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This is how a loan is supposed to work. You get a guy back who is better than when he left, and ready for the next challenge. That is where Calum Chambers is, and we should embrace it.

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