Arsenal: Don’t you dare turn on Calum Chambers now

Arsenal failed in a big way against Crystal Palace, but to turn on Calum Chambers now would be yet another short-sighted mistake made by fans.

Arsenal fans are known for their fickleness and their ridiculous short-sightedness. It’s apparent in the way they’re singing for Mesut Ozil to come save them and it’s even more apparent in the shocking amount of grumbles aimed at Calum Chambers.

The Englishman was slotted out at right back again, and despite his early successes at the position, we kind of all knew this would happen—Chambers’ limitations at the position would be uncovered.

It’s never easy going up against Wilfried Zaha and go figure, Chambers struggled to keep up. With Hector Bellerin waiting in the ranks, it’s probably only a matter of time anyway before we put a rightback at rightback. It only makes sense.

But with how well Chambers has played at the position up until this point, it’s even more surprising that they’ve already started turning on him than it is surprising that they think that Mesut Ozil is the solution.

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Calum Chambers is a centerback. He always has been. The fact that he has auxiliary positions isn’t supposed to mean that we only ever use him at those auxiliary positions. It’s supposed to mean that he can play them when we’re in a pinch, which we had been. But we’ve been in a pinch at centerback all year and that hasn’t seemed to matter.

Do no turn on Chambers now. Not after such standout, stalwart performances. While I will always advocate for supporting club and player no matter what, if you have to blame someone for Chambers’ diminishing performances at rightback, blame Unai Emery for having no clue what he’s doing with Chambers. For telling the world that he had “huge plans” for Chambers at the start of last season only to then loan him out and promptly bench him after the first away clean sheet in over a year, and the last one since.

Honestly, I don’t know what’s worse—the fact that Unai Emery can’t figure out that his best defense is right in front of his face, or fans turning and blaming Chambers for not being a rightback despite his excellent play up until this point.

The worst part is actually that neither one looks likely to change anytime soon. Emery is still slow on the uptake and these fans won’t change.