Arsenal: Oh look, Calum Chambers is still absolutely worth it

Calum Chambers took home player of the year honors from Fulham, and it’s for a role that Arsenal happen to need, without wanting to spend money on.

It’s nice to be right sometimes. From the moment Calum Chambers has been at Arsenal, showing growth, maturation and versatility, I’ve been all about making him a mainstay. Of course, back then it was as a centerback, this time, thanks to more growth and development, it’s for somewhere else.

Chambers spent the year on relegated Fulham, his second time spending an entire season as a regular at a relegated club. The first time, Middlesbrough, showed us that he was ready to content for a starting centerback spot, as he was under siege the entire year, yet anchored what turned out to be a very sneakily good defense at Boro.

This time, at Fulham, he one-upped himself, earning player of the season honors by capturing 48% of the vote, well ahead of Mitrovic, the runner up, who had 14%.

But it wasn’t at centerback that earned Chambers the award. It was, as Fulham put it, as “a protector of the back-four.”

And just like that, I am yet again completely on board with Chambers doing the exact same role at Arsenal as he did on a relegated team the year before.

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Our defense needs help, but the thing with the current set up is that we have a lot of youth options that are all going to be clawing for spots, and presumably a signing or two to augment the corps so that we don’t have to rely solely on those youth options.

That said, Chambers may find it hard to break in at centerback, though certainly not impossible.

What he can do instead is pitch himself as the kind of midfielder we don’t have – and a damn good one too.

Granit Xhaka doesn’t protect that back four. Neither does Matteo Guendouzi. Lucas Torreira is close, but he can be a bit reckless and doesn’t have much presence when he does have the ball. And that is where Calum Chambers fits in.

I always believed that the Gunners looked their best when they deployed a three-man midfield, with Xhaka as the central hub. The problem is it limited his ability to get forward. But with Chambers as that central hub, flanked by Xhaka and Torreira/Guendouzi, the capabilities are quite exciting.

And all unlocked by Calum Chambers, who is still absolutely worth the spot on the team that he so clearly deserves.