Arsenal: Domagoj Vida for Chambers pointless, but suddenly necessary

Domagoj Vida isn’t a necessary signing for Arsenal. Or rather, he wasn’t. Not until recently. But now we’d rather get acting quickly to make sure this happens.

I didn’t expect to be talking about Arsenal’s defense again until the season started. The squad had filled out nicely and was in pretty good shape to at least give it a go. There were three centerbacks who could compete for the starting two roles, and two behind them to put the pressure on.

However, neither of the two who would have been sitting in behind the starting three should have been in the conversation just yet. Promising, yes, but definitely not something that we could have banked on.

One of those three starting-caliber centerbacks — Calum Chambers — is not supposedly on his way out the door. Temporarily, it would seem, but he still won’t be here and, so long as he isn’t here, someone else will have to be.

Again, the two guys sitting behind the starters — Konstantinos Mavropanos and Rob Holding — don’t exactly inspire the right feelings. Excitement? Yes. Plenty. Confidence? No. Not really. Too little has been seen and too little reliability has been picked out.

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So if Chambers is to leave, there has to be a reaction signing. Has to be. Neither Sokratis nor Shkodran Mustafi are bonafide starters. They have their upside and, if everything goes right, they could manage to be a solid pairing, but that’s if everything goes right.

If it doesn’t all go right, who do we turn to?

Apparently Domagoj Vida, the 29-year-old Croatian centerback who made a name for himself (along with many other Croats) at the World Cup.

Vida was linked to the Gunners before the rumors of the Chambers exit and the conversation went something like this:

“Do we need him?”

“Well, no, but he is the kind of player we would want.”

The conversation has changed now. Vida is still the kind of player we would want — he’s mean, strong, no-nonsense, experienced — but now we have a sudden need for him, because we only have two reliable centerbacks.

So bring on the Croat. Let’s get meaner, even if we didn’t really need to initially.