Arsenal: You can’t avoid the Calum Chambers situation forever

After a smashing opening match for Arsenal, Calum Chambers has yet to play another minute. Unai Emery can’t hide from this issue forever.

Arsenal have kept one clean sheet this year, and it wasn’t with David Luiz. It was with Calum Chambers, the young English centerback who took home Fulham player of the year honors following a massively successful loan to the relegated club last year.

I’ve been harping a lot about Chambers being unjustly tossed to the side in favor of an enigmatic veteran pair that really doesn’t inspire any more confidence than Chambers would, yet he continues to see his time wasted on the bench while the mistake-prone centerback duo duke it out.

I get the impression that Unai Emery is making a rare personnel mistake by not addressing this situation. It’s been remarkably quiet, as no one is asking Chambers how he feels about the matter, but I can’t imagine he’s very happy.

Here’s a guy who’s been with Arsenal for years now and all he’s wanted is a prolonged chance to prove himself. Every small chance he gets, he proves himself capable, but that never amounts to a lengthy stay in the starting XI.

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This year was the year. Another successful loan, another quick sample of how capable he was, this time against Newcastle, keeping the first away clean sheet in over a year, and yet the result is the same.

With Rob Holding on his way back, this situation is not going to get any easier. I have a sneaking suspicion that Holding will be given priority over Chambers, and that just doesn’t sit right with the “fair and just” managing style of Unai Emery. Compile that on the pending move for William Saliba, who is absolutely going to be given priority, and Chambers looks like he may just be getting strung along for the hell of it.

There’s still time to do what’s right and put Chambers back into the starting XI. That’s the best way out of this. Midweek competitions won’t be the same, there’s like bandaging a wound that needs stitches. There comes a point where you need to commit to the players that have committed to you or let them take that commitment elsewhere and I hate to think that Chambers may be the first guy to really buck the fairness trend that Emery has set.

But again, there’s still time. I’ll try not to get too dramatic.