Calum Chambers signed for Arsenal from Southampton for a fee that could reportedly rise to £16 million. Only 19 at the time of the move, you could have been forgiven for thinking that sort of money is quite substantial for a teenager with limited experience in the league. But it’s fair to say that in his first few games for the Gunners, he showed enough promise to justify the fee.
Although he was initially signed as a right back, Chambers was positioned in the centre back role in Community Shield and the Champions League qualifying play-off; an away match against Besiktas contained the atmosphere Chambers would certainly never have experienced before but still managed to keep himself together with the help of centre back partner Laurent Koscielny and managed to keep a vital clean sheet.
The 20 year-old looked very competent and composed in the middle, his anticipation was exemplary as he was able to step in and snuff out threats repeatedly and his Arsenal career got off to a solid start. Perhaps his first shaky game was the away match at Goodison Park against Everton, where Arsenal needed a last minute Olivier Giroud goal to salvage a draw, but the early appearances were enough to show that in the future, Chambers may not be used prominently in the full back positions by Arsene Wenger, that he was well suited to the centre half role.
However as the season went on, Wenger moved Chambers back to his right back role and played him sparingly in the middle. He made 17 appearances at right back and just four at centre back. The emergence of Hector Bellerin and the solidity of the Koscielny and Mertasacker partnership could be to blame for that. Despite this, Wenger is adamant that his future lay in the middle of the park, insisting that Arsenal fans will see Chambers there more frequently next season. The Arsenal manager cites these as the reasons why Chambers is more suited to the centre back role.
“First his stature. The fact he is intelligent and reads the game well, the fact that he’s more at ease in the middle. On the flank, today you need more pace, more change of direction, more agility. He has the stamina, the power and the quality to be a central midfielder or a central defender.
“At the moment, I have players who have more experience than Calum, but in pre-season I will play him there.”
Wherever Chambers ends up playing, Arsenal fans will be hoping for consistent, commanding performances from the young English defender for plenty of years to come.
