Arsenal: Down with David Luiz, bring back Calum Chambers… for now

Arsenal are no strangers to defensive mistakes, but our new solution is making the most of anyone this year, and that’s not a good thing.

I wasn’t okay with life when Unai Emery decided it would be smarter to sit Calum Chambers after his tremendous performance in the opening week against Newcastle and trust the Arsenal defensive fortunes to David Luiz who, as I have previously mentioned, while likely an upgrade on Shkodran Mustafi, is still going to have significant defensive problems.

Take, for instance, the mishap against Burnley that saw the game leveled. Luiz left Ashley Barnes alone behind him, the ball came in, Barnes finished. We might not have dwelled on it too much because we still won the game but…

Then Liverpool happened, and Luiz put in a 2/10 performance that saw him giving up a penalty minutes into the first half with a foolish yellow card that saw the match out of Arsenal’s hands to recoup.

Two starts, two mistakes, both leading to goals, both in problematic situations, one that leveled a match we were leading, and one when we were only a goal down and fighting for a goal against Liverpool. Sure, it’s a small sample size, and I’m not saying down with Luiz forever. Just for now.

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I don’t want to be that guy, but I don’t like David Luiz’s new two-for-two thus far into the season, and I can’t help but think that, with Calum Chambers, we gave up zero goals and Chambers had zero mistakes. With Luiz, we give up four goals, two coming from Luiz’s mistakes. That’s pretty clear and substantial evidence that maybe Luiz should take a seat and let Chambers back into the starting XI where he was starting to make an impact.

If not that, Rob Holding is back, and if you want my honest and potentially unpopular opinion, I’d rather see Chambers and Holding start than Sokratis and Luiz, neither of whom are impressing me, while Chambers has impressed and Holding went down with an injury after impressing considerably last year.

With how much Unai Emery was experimenting with his midfield and attack last year, it’s time to get experimenting on the defense too. Two mistakes is too many, and Sokratis hasn’t been good either. You have to improve in this area and the two “veterans” are not doing the job.

Tottenham is next, at home. And I honestly would feel better with Holding and Chambers, or at least one or the other, than the mistake brothers of Sokratis and Luiz. At least until we’re convinced otherwise.