Arsenal: Time for a young, modern defence

The Arsenal defence has been hapless all year long. But Unai Emery now has the chance to change things up. The time has come for a young, modern backline.

Arsenal punted on the centre-back position. They knew it would be a problem. They wanted to sign a solution. But they had no opportunity to do so. The only player they found would only join after another year on loan and they ran out of money to sign a more immediate answer to their problems.

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The hodge-podge of players they assembled at the position have largely let them down so far this season. Sokratis has regressed from last season, David Luiz is doing David Luiz things — whoever could have guessed — and Emery has had few other options to turn to with some crucial injuries following over from last season.

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Arsenal have kept just one clean sheet in their Premier League matches this season. They allowed Watford to have 31 shots, a record for the Hornets in a league match, have made more individual errors that have led directly to goals, and given away three silly penalties in three successive matches. It has not been a pretty sight.

But on Tuesday night, Emery welcomed three crucial players back into the fold: right-back Hector Bellerin, left-back Kieran Tierney, and centre-half Rob Holding. The three are anticipated to be starters across the back four throughout the season and their return to the first-team fray is extremely significant.

It also coincides with Calum Chambers’ uptick in form. Chambers was introduced at half-time against Aston Villa and was excellent in Ainsley Maitland-Niles’ absence, scoring the equaliser and bombing forward with surprising efficacy and dynamism. He then started against Nottingham Forest alongside Holding and Tierney and was again excellent, playing with confidence and assurance that suggest he is ready for greater responsibility.

Perhaps, then, it is time for Emery to embrace this youthful and modern back four. It is not as if the results can get any worse. And while Luiz and Sokratis are both the wrong side of 30. They are not going to be the future of the team, whatever way you slice it.

So if you are going to have a defence that is set to make mistakes, why not use players who still have their careers ahead of them, can learn from those mistakes, and develop as individuals and a collective unit as a result? It is arguable whether Chambers and Holding are actually any better than Sokratis and Luiz, but if you are to field an error-prone defence anyway, at least make it a young, modern one that has an eye towards the future.

Tierney and Bellerin are obviously going to be the starting full-backs once they are fit and available. They are ideal players for a modern system. Blessed with great stamina and speed, they can bound up and down the flank, progress play against the high press, create chances and produce assists, while also being secure defensively. Meanwhile, Chambers and Holding are modern centre-halves: they are comfortable in possession, capable in one-on-ones and capable against counter-attacks to implement a high press.

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The time for change, then, has come. Emery must embrace the new, the uncertain, the future. Because what more has the Arsenal defence got to lose?

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