Arsenal: It’s do or die for Rob Holding, not Calum Chambers

Arsenal have some good young defenders on the books, looking for that chance. If something works once – do it again, right?

Arsenal’s young defensive corps are fantastic. Plain and simple. Between Calum Chambers, Rob Holding and Konstantinos Mavropanos, they have three guys that have the promise of the world ahead of them.

With Chambers, it wasn’t the easiest route to get here. He went from a promising Southampton man to an out-of-place Gunner rightback, where we all knew that he didn’t belong. He was always going to be a centerback.

After two years of patience mixed with frustration, Chambers stalled and was sent on loan to Middlesbrough, where he showed up big time, but was still relegated.

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When he came back, this past year, he proved that he had changed a ton – all in a positive direction. His maturity was obvious, his no-nonsense approach was fantastic. He was superb throughout, making very little mistakes in the process.

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Again, it was a long process that involved a ton of steps, and the snags along the way often seemed insurmountable, but here he is, with a new contract, and just like that, there is a significant investment in him.

This is not do or die for Chambers this year. This is all ‘do,’ because we know he is good enough.

Holding needs that treatment. He needs a loan or an opportunity, because I’m still pretty convinced that Chambers would have been just as fine with a more serious role within the Arsenal team, but that’s moot now.

The point is, the steps have to be made, and right now, Holding is not taking those steps being crammed at the bottom of a crowded totem pole. Therefore this season is much more do or die for Holding than it is for Chambers. Because Holding has to start taking one of those steps to move forward, and one of those steps is not sitting on the bench.

Whether that be a loan or some other creative solution, it doesn’t matter, but something has to happen, and it has to happen this year, because beyond that and we’re just treading water with him, and that’s never good, especially for a young player trying to establish himself.

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It worked for Chambers, it can work for Holding. What happened once can happen again. It’s that simple.