Calum Chambers has been a peripheral figure for Arsenal this season so far, with the England U-21 international starting once out of 11 Premier League games so far.Â
It’s seems decades ago when Chambers was voted Arsenal player of the month in August last year, for his encouraging performances early in the season. His efforts were rewarded with a first call-up to England’s senior squad.
But after a promising start to life at Arsenal since arriving from Southampton, the 20 year-old has struggled to replicate the same form or play a steady flow of games, as he did in Laurent Koscielny and Mathieu Debuchy’s absence last season.
Personally, I haven’t seen a great deal of progress from the young defender, who had a torrid game against Liverpool in August and not the best of games against Sheffield Wednesday more recently.
Overall he’s shown some inexperience and lack of maturity in his game in comparison to someone of a similar age, like Everton’s John Stones.
In his defence, it is difficult to settle back into competitiveness when a player isn’t getting a consistent run of games. Debuchy and David Ospina come to mind, who have looked noticeably ring-rusty and therefore have struggled to make desirable impacts from the periphery.
Arsene Wenger has made it clear he sees Chambers as a centre-back despite arriving as a right-back, but the England youngster has at least 3 senior defenders ahead of him to contend with.
It was expected that this was the season which would see Chambers really push for a regular first team spot, but with the experienced partnership of Mertesacker and Kosielny along with the promising Koscielny and Gabriel combination, it’s hard to see where Chambers will fit in.
So how many can realistically see this youngster get much game time under his belt, unless a defensive injury crisis occurs? It’ll be the usual pattern of playing one-off cup matches and making late substitute appearances to help preserve a clean-sheet or a lead.
Therefore, I found it an odd decision to begin with to see Jenkinson loaned out again this season, when in fact it should have been Chambers, because based on the evidence of his season so far, he would definitely benefit from such a move by gaining valuable experience of regular first team football. Preferably in the Premier League… West Ham maybe?