Arsenal: 7 central defenders—who stays and who goes?

Rob Holding

This is the hardest of the bunch. During lockdown, David Ornstein announced that Arsenal would be listening to offers for the Englishman. After a couple of promising displays after the restart, I’m intrigued to see whether Arsenal have changed their stance on this one.

Other than Saliba, on his day, I think Holding is the player on this list. In addition, he’s also apt at playing as a left-sided centre-back, unlike Chambers, Sokratis, and Mustafi. Saliba prefers to play on the right-hand-side as well. I’d be really disappointed to Holding leave the club. But, given the clear overload in this area, I expect that he’ll be moved on this Summer if a suitable offer comes. A real shame.

Verdict: I’d keep, but I think we’ll sell

How we’ve found ourselves in a situation where we have this many low calibre central-defenders is quite honestly beyond me. Straightforwardly, the defensive recruitment over the last few years has been an absolute mess.

Let’s hope that William Saliba proves to break the trend alongside some other new recruits this Summer. This Summer could quite possibly be representative of a defensive revolution at Arsenal.