Arsenal: David Luiz threw himself a perfectly-timed life preserver

David Lui is obviously a priority for Unai Emery, but his time in the Arsenal XI was running thin… until he bailed us out in a rather big way.

David Luiz was supposed to be a game-changer for Arsenal. or, at the bare minimum, he was supposed to be a stop-gap defensive solution. He was cheap, experienced, a proven winner and he has a dominant personality. All things that we needed in a big way.

But he’s had serious problems avoiding mistakes. Particularly giving up penalties. It was dubious enough that he drove Calum Chambers to the bench despite Chambers not losing the job at all. In fact, Chambers has been one of our best performers this year.

With the international break now here, and Rob Holding and the entire proper defensive starters on the mend, you can assume that big changes are on the way when we get back to business in two weeks.

That’s the only reason why Kieran Tierney and Rob Holding, in particularly, weren’t in the starting XI against Bournemouth. They’d just played 90 minutes against Standard Liege, to great effect, and weren’t in any position to play another 90 three days later.

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Not when their health is a serious concern.

But with two weeks now off, we can shuffle the pack and get back to the future of this defense. Rob Holding will be starting, Kieran Tierney will be starting, and at rightback… well, it’s between Hector Bellerin and Calum Chambers.

I would have bet that Chambers would be replacing David Luiz, letting Bellerin play on the right, but Luiz’s clutch goal against Bournemouth may have given him the extra life he needed to keep his job a little while longer.

If for no other reason, than simply because he reminded Unai Emery that we don’t always have to play those stupid short corners. We can loft balls into the box on set pieces and have hope in Luiz connecting. The man’s always been an aerial threat, but seeing it work in the form of our only goal, well, that is a timely reminder that maybe we do need him in that starting XI, solely to be a lift while our attack sputters to life.

Of course… Rob Holding scored a pretty awesome headed goal too, and we know Chambers is capable of the same. So… maybe this is all a temporary measure. Luiz does appear to be an Emery favorite, however.