Arsenal: 6 players fighting for their places in the team

As Arsenal released their usual pre-match fitness update of all the players available to play in the build-up to the North London Derby, something wasn’t right. Someone at the club hadn’t got the memo: not one first team squad member was missing.

Surely this was an oversight? When was the last time anyone can remember this happening? Well, lo and behold, it was right. For the first time in what felt like forever, there are no absences.

That obviously didn’t last the full 90 minutes as it has since been revealed that Granit Xhaka will now miss three months of action with a knee injury, so supporters savoured it while they could.

As focus turned to Mikel Arteta now boasting his full complement of players and the starting lineup he would select, what became overlooked were those not involved.

6 players fighting for their places in the Arsenal team under Mikel Arteta with the manager looking like finding his perfect system and tactical setup

For some, this doesn’t matter. There is still some deadwood at the club as well as a host of players not at the level to be regulars in the starting lineup, but as long as the eleven players that are put out can be backed up by a few solid introductions and arrivals off the bench then it can’t be so bad? Not quite. It’s a squad game.

The players have work to do.

Competition in any position is utterly paramount. In order for players to be kept on their toes and avoid being comfortable where they are then there must be those around them pushing them to produce 100% every week.

Supporters still know that this Arsenal squad is not there yet and more windows are required in order to have it at the competitive level desired. Internally though, there are a host of players who are fighting for their places in some capacity, with some work to do for all of them.

1. Calum Chambers

Whatever happened to?

Rising from the dead in the sense his long-term injury had made him a forgotten figure only to then admirably battle his way past two other right-backs and earn a starting spot at the end of last season, Calum Chambers has since disappeared.

Featured in the starting lineup in three of the Gunners’ four games in all competitions to start the season, the former first choice right-back has since been exempt from the previous three Premier League squads: no place at Burnley, Tottenham or Brighton.

It’s a surprising fall from grace, even if ‘grace’ is clearly hyperbolic.

However there were plenty who felt that, as needed as it was, with so much to tend to over the summer transfer window Arsenal just might have been able to leave right-back for six months. Everyone knew Chambers wasn’t at the level required but if pushed to pick priorities it was the ‘least’ necessary.

Now he finds himself below Cedric Soares in the pecking order, both as the bench option on league matchdays and as first choice in the domestic competitions.

Arsenal are, as far as it’s known, yet to activate the extra year in his contract. They surely will, just for the sake of value protection, but Chambers will want to attract a higher calibre of club and he has much more work to do before that happens.

Continued…