Arsenal: Calum Chambers is at it again, and Mikel Arteta knows it

Arsenal’s defense kept just their second away clean sheet in two years and go figure, it was Calum Chambers at the heart of it. Can’t hide from it now.

For the past two years, I’ve wanted a manager who understands that Arsenal can build a defense with Calum Chambers at the heart. Arsene Wenger seemed to get that. Unai Emery didn’t. Freddie Ljungberg didn’t (at least not right away), but maybe Mikel Arteta now can.

With the new boss sitting in the stands, the Gunners didn’t exactly wow his socks off. The attack was left frustrated, hampered, and disjointed. But on the defensive side of things, we saw what has become the rarest of rarities—an away clean sheet.

Perhaps we were mislead in the opening match of the season at St. Mary’s, when we kept our first away clean sheet in over a year. Then, it was a centerback pairing of Sokratis and Calum Chambers. From that moment forth, Chambers became a bit-part player. Emery, for whatever reason, saw fit to stick with Sokratis and David Luiz, which failed time and time again.

With the pressure off Freddie Ljungberg started to trust Calum Chambers and against Everton, the Englishman put in a fantastic, man of the match showing, earning his club their second away clean sheet.

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Two away clean sheets, both with Calum Chambers putting in strong, man of the match performances. Coincidence? Nah.

Chambers was tremendous in front of the new boss. Maybe that was him stepping up to the plate to re-prove himself. Maybe that was just him being a fantastic and tremendously underrated defender. It’s hard to say, but whatever the case, we all saw it. We saw the way he dominated the air, we saw the way he commanded possession, we saw his composure, his complete phobia to nonsense. We saw it all.

And it was all fantastic. It was also a stark contrast to David Luiz, who had an awful first 45 minutes followed by a stoic first 45. Chambers was superb throughout, but his teammates were there for him, at least for the second half. Ainsley Maitland-Niles wasn’t caught out as often and Luiz figured himself out.

Go figure that when you put him in a competent set-up, we actually looked decent. Can’t say we’d have seen the same with anyone else back there.

Chambers will miss the next match due to yellow card accumulation, which is a bummer, because I’m sure Arteta would have loved to keep the faith in the Englishman. But he’ll be back. There’s no hiding from it now.