Arsenal: Calum Chambers is more important than Shkodran Mustafi

Arsenal’s defense needs help, and they are getting that help, but prioritizing the current resources is pretty important as well, so let’s do that.

Arsenal’s ‘new era’ is kicking off in a very sensible, savvy way. But no one has yet been sold and, at some point, it seems like a sale or two may have to happen to drum up some extra funds with which to make the needed changes.

This is especially important on defense, where the Gunners had the most problems they’ve had in over a decade.

This defense was terrible, and it was an almost inexplicable kind of terrible, where individual mistakes – both mental and physical – lead to so many self-destructive moments.

How do you fix that? Well, you can change the personnel. I have not been too supportive of ripping out the entire defense, but assuming it’s going to happen, sort of like a weeding process, it’s important to remember not to rip up flowers with the weeds.

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I don’t think that Shkodran Mustafi is a weed. I think he has a top-class defender buried in him, and it came out more than he gets credit for this passed year, but it’s impossible to ignore the inexplicable lapses in his own game that came out far too often last season, leading to a handful of downright stupid goals.

There is talk that Sven Mislintat is not convinced in Mustafi either. Now, this is all speculation, with no actual source, so it may or may not be true. I’m only addressing it because I want to set a clear priority on those that deserve it. If we are to sell defenders to bring in new ones, then it’s important to sell the right defenders.

And, assuming the plan is to sell, it would be far smarter for the Gunners to sell Mustafi than to sell Calum Chambers. Ideally we could charge more for Mustafi, for starters, but going beyond that, while Chambers has proven less, he has also improved far more.

Not to mention he only has one real mistake from all of last year. He was a sentinel in every way, and was a reliable defender. To the point that I called him our best and most consistent centerback. Which I still believe.

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That being the case, it’s important to prioritize the stay of Chambers over Mustafi. Personally, I don’t think either needs to be sold, but if one has to be, opt for the latter, because the former still has so much to give.

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