Rob Holding Suffers Arsenal Setback

It’s hard to decide who comes off worse from this news.

With Rob Holding set to take his place in the starting lineup against Manchester City on Saturday, a late call was made to exempt him from the Arsenal team after picking up an injury in the warm up.

Suffering yet another injury on his quest to becoming a first team regular, David Luiz took his place and put in a shift totally dissimilar to his horror show four months ago. Based off of Mikel Arteta’s team selection, it appears those two are now locked in a battle to take up the second centre-back slot alongside Gabriel Magalhaes.

That’s not a conversation we were expecting to be having at this stage. With William Saliba and Gabriel coming in, it was thought (hoped) that they would be the ones lining up beside experienced head Luiz in a back three setup.

The decision to pull the plug on Holding’s loan move to Newcastle came about via a combination of factors; one being concern for Saliba’s development and the other being the improved displays Holding has put in since the latter end of last season.

I’ll be the first to admit I’ve questioned whether the Englishman had what it takes to be a regular starter at Arsenal. Everyone points to the role he played in the 22-match unbeaten run, but even the most staunch supporters know full well that the Gunners had plenty of luck during that spell.

A desperately unfortunate injury had him sidelined for months, and the games upon his return well less than reassuring, although a healthy pinch of patience was still needed. This season, however, he’s been in some of his best form and helped ease Gabriel into the fold. His man-to-man defending is much improved as has his reading of danger, and it appears he’s Arteta’s second choice centre-back.

But another setback that we don’t yet know the full extent of has occurred, and we can only hope it isn’t another major derailment.

It’s a loss for Arsenal, sure, but a bigger one for Holding unless the news is just short-term. His commitment to the cause must be heralded this season, and even if he will never fall into the ‘elite’ bracket, making a case for Gabriel/Holding to not be the best pairing at the club would be brave call.