Arsenal: Stephan Lichtsteiner needs to make Bellerin feel insecure

Arsenal fans were less than pleased with Hector Bellerin’s enigmatic performance against Chelsea, so it’s time for something long overdue.

There is beginning to be a serious splitting of opinions regarding Hector Bellerin. The still-young Arsenal fullback was the bee’s knees when he first came up as a teenager, but since then, he hasn’t shown all that much improvement.

Some would argue that he has even gotten worse, as he doesn’t appear to be as fast, and his defending has not improved like we would have wanted.

But he’s never been challenged. Not once has there been any immediate risk to Bellerin’s job. Arsene Wenger put complete and total faith in the young man, perhaps in an act of trust, perhaps to fend off any lingering desire that Bellerin had to leave, or perhaps because Wenger just didn’t want to trouble himself with overstocking a position.

Whatever the case, that is ending now. For the first time since Bellerin broke into the first-team, he has an actual, legitimate threat behind him. And what a threat it is.

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Stephan Lichtsteiner should have started against Chelsea. He should have started at leftback, where he proved himself a more than viable option after having to fill in for the majority of the match against Manchester City.

He proved to be strong, quick, innovative and a hell of a lot more effective than his age would tend to hint at.

But Unai Emery appears less than enthused about starting Lichtsteiner at leftback, even though he should. I said it after City – however you do it, you have to start Lichtsteiner. He provides too much to not have out there. He is a constant, empathic presence, like a left hook just waiting in the dark.

That being the case, I think it’s important that Lichtsteiner be given the chance to start at his natural position. Because, once he does, we will have something at rightback that we haven’t had in a couple years now – reliability.

We talked about this in the preseason. The long-term point of having Lichtsteiner is to bring out the best in Bellerin for the future. That doesn’t happen if Lichtsteiner isn’t given the chance to put the pressure on him by starting ahead of him.

I know it’s still early, so don’t expect this to happen right away. But if Bellerin continues doing what he’s doing, then it’s only a matter of time before it’s time to unleash the Licht.