Arsene Wenger admitted that he considered taking off Calum Chambers at half-time, but said his improved performance in the second period will help restore some confidence.
The 20 year old suffered a torrid time in the opening 45 minutes, and such was the difficulty he faced that a half-time change was mooted by the manager, but he decided to keep faith with the former Southampton man and alongside Gabriel he was much improved in the second half.
“You’re always tempted,” he said at the prospect of withdrawing him from action, “but he responded well.
“It was important for him. You sit there and you wonder how far he can go without losing competitive confidence. In the second half he did well.
“He’s a good footballer and he will come out of that stronger, with the belief that when he had difficult moments he can come out of it stronger.”
The manager was concerned about his team’s lack of firepower, but was unhappy with the decision of the linesman to give Aaron Ramsey offside when his run was clearly well-timed.
“It was a regular goal,” he said. “It was a period of the game where we maybe had the most problems defensively but it’s a regular goal.
“I can’t see why it was cancelled. It’s clear and on that front you cannot say that Liverpool can complain. I could see live that he could not be offside. He started his run behind his man.
“I could see it from where I was but I thought maybe the angle on TV was different. It was not and I must say that Liverpool played well in the first half.
“We were insecure defensively and we gave them many balls. We created trouble for ourselves but even in the first half we had chances.”
I believe that is clear to every body that Arsenal need more than a striker and a holding midfielder two matches at home exposed how weak Arsenal squad Are . Wenger has no clue what to do. Arsenal need a manger tomorrow to sign some credible players and improve Arsenal chances . We are repeating the same story with Mr Wenger who was described correctly as a specialist in Failure . 19 years of torturing Arsenal fans with his stupid strange views.
Boring boring Bakri.
I’d love to be a specialist in failure if winning the league and cup multiple times is considered a failure…
Relax pal. Second half I saw a Liverpool defending with 11 players, deep in their own half. We were the better team against an opponent who came for a draw. Every team in the league is deeply flawed, including City who are an Aguero/Silva/Kompany injury away from calamity.
we are already a calamity even with all our starting caliber players healthy
That’s a bit harsh Jim! Is everything ok at home?
You’re the ultimate ingrate if you forget two Doubles, the Invincibles, more FA Cups than any manager in modern history and some of the most hypnotic attacking football England has ever seen in your “19 years of torturing Arsenal fans”. You may have a point with more recent incarnations of Arsenal being [relatively] torturous to watch (the nadir being 2011), but 19 years? Are you for real?
‘Fans’ like you make me sick. And give Arsenal fans in general a bad name
Hilarious comment from somebody who has no understanding of football
Do you remember the invincibles?
Even Maureen couldn’t manage that.
I recall Rambo having a few bad games back in the day, and getting vilified for it.
They ended up calling him Welsh Jesus…
Funny old world innit …?
I liked a lot of the so called “torturing” …does that make me a perv, or Bakri a knob? 🙂
Hugely frustrating not to get the goal, however to have 61 shots all season, the highest in the league, yet scoring only 2 goals, one an own goal, is a huge discrepancy that Wenger needs to solve.
Wenger should have played Debuchy instead of Chambers. This occasional but intense football for Chambers is like dropping him in the deep end and may destroy his confidence. Plus, it’s not a pre-season where u look to test out a player. Like Gary Neville said, Chambers should be loaned out to play every week. And Wenger should know that he cannot forever be promising jam tomorrow.
Looking at it in terms of Chamber´s development, I strongly disagree. Indeed he was dropped in the deep end, but he kept a clean sheet, and was not substituted against one of the better teams in the league.
Considering he is smart enough to know he is 4th choice. I think it was a particularly good day for his development.
However from the teams perspective. I maybe am inclined to agree that Debuchy might have been a better option on the day.
I agree Lone Ranger and the more I look back this seems like a very dubious choice.
Liverpool are trying to establish their credentials and a direct rival to Arsenal- it was bound to be an intense game. Why not play either Debuchy or Monreal with Gabriel?
I believe in rotation and Chambers needs game time, but this was neither the game nor the venue to use Chambers.
With Kos and BFG in, I’m sure we would win this game. They were better in the 1st half and we were better in the 2nd half. L’pool will take some pts off other contenders this season. Next week is a must win now. Let’s not panic buy just yet.
Haha are there actually people who want us to panic buy? Since when is it a good thing to negotiate from a position of weakness?
So stupid that he’s won only three league titles and six FA Cups in that time, while building only one new stadium. And he only made the Champions League group stage eighteen of those nineteen years. For shame!
We got some real negative Nancies returning from the woodwork, its the beginning of the season for Bergkamp’s sake!
Exactly, If we knew two days ago that both Center backs would be missing, people would be on here forecasting super doom and gloom. I’m pretty amazed that we kept a clean sheet. I would like to see Chamberlain get a start, but I couldn’t tell you at whose expense…
A point isn’t actually too bad considering how big a gut punch it was to not have Kos or Mert. And I’m with you on Chamberlain, our options are a good headache to have
Oh spare me the BS! If the fans complain at the beginning of the season you say, ” wait till the season ends” and then when the complaints come at the end, you say ” we are going to get stronger this season”. And that cycle continues….FFS Wenger should address the gaping problems in the squad.
Hope chambers recovers he had an absolute shocker. The guy couldn’t even pass a roll up nevermind a ball to save his life.reminds me of his performance against Swansea vs Moreno
We certainly hope Chambers improves – he could hardly have had a worse night! I know it’s not going to be popular here but I wonder if his competitive confidence was actually broken early last season when we played him too early, too often &too often out of position? It seems to me he’s regressed since he arrived at Arsenal – which, to be fair, is not something one expects from a youngster so favored by Arsene.
That’s a pretty strong judgment to make based off of one game!
It’s not based off one game. After a very strong debut, Chambers has struggled more & more – most obviously against better teams – but it’s difficult to remember him having a great game against anyone. Yes, he’s young and Arsene obviously thinks he has talent so I’m still hopeful that he’ll develop – but let’s be honest, the early signs aren’t encouraging!
If I remember correctly he made a strong debut, simmered down a little, then didn’t really play the second half of the season. Maybe I’m just completely wrong, but don’t you have to consistently play to eventually be consistently good?
Yup, he started strong & played for us 36 times last season – but his appearances were limited in the second half of the season as his form dropped dramatically – and Bellerin emerged at right back & Gabrielle was hired as the main cover at center back. Agree he probably needs more game time but, based on tonight’s performance, can you see him being chosen over any of the regular first team players?
You only have to look at Chris Smalling to see how young defenders can look shit for spells and turn it around. There’s a fine barn-storming center half in Chambers somewhere. I just hope he’s stronger mentally than Senderos, who disappointingly lost his shit after he was shown up by world class strikers like Drogba and Torres. I think Wenger is guilty to an extent of overestimating Chambers’ composure last season after a good performance alongside Nacho in the Community Shield. He’s a better fourth-choice central defender that Djourou anyway.
You more eloquently (& positively) made the point I was trying to make. I think Arsene pushed Chambers too hard, too soon on the basis of an excellent first performance in the Community Shield (though admittedly we were short on options at the time). I think it damaged his confidence. I hope he can turn it around. He’s only 20 so there’s plenty of time & Arsene is obviously not giving up on him.
Oh I 100% agree. In fact the first half of last season kind of went out the window after Arsene looked at Chambers and Monreal and thought “My god I’ve pulled two center backs out of my Arse(nal)!”
The boy’s biggest problem as far as I can tell is his footwork. He’s got these big canoe feet and he can’t figure out how to sort them out sometimes. This makes it difficult to change direction when he’s up against a pacey, tricky winger or when he’s trying to pick a pass.
He is still learning and dont forget today was his first game of the season.
you just hope we don’t have to finish in 7th place for him to develop his game
I’m f**king frustrated. Again. Staunch Wenger fan. Gabriel different class but we’re not performing, again. Again, again. Higuain ?
Chambers is a good talent. Hard to find young CB’s with size, athleticism and skill with the ball (just ask Chelsea! 35M for John Stones?). It’s also worth remembering CB like GK is a position of maturity and much harder to perfect for a youngster, especially one not accustomed to playing there regularly. It’s easy to forget CC is just 20 years of age. Every once in a while a Tony Adams comes along who was born to play there and they take off running from the age of 18, but more commonly players age into it in their mid… Read more »
Well, at some point during the game he should have used his common sense (releasing the ball quicker and to the nearest man instead of trying to pass like xavi or take on people like messi)
I guess why Chambers wasn’t taken off was becos there’s no CB on the bench
I believe he has Chambers earmarked for a defensive midfield role, maybe that is why AW is not looking at anyone in that position. Gary Neville’s pre-match comments about Wengers “arrogance” in not signing a midfield power house were quite interesting. I love AW but I cannot think of any other reason why he does not see what every pundit, commentator and fan can see. His stubbornness to accept constructive criticism is his greatest flaw. My feeling is that in light of Nevelle’s comments, AW will now buy someone even smaller than Santi, possibly a midget, because above all else… Read more »
Taking him off would’ve been disastrous in the long term. Think about his confidence.
Yesterday our defense was shaky agreed but we didnt concede. It’s our inability to open up defenses that worries me, our inability to put 3-4 goals past teams that are there for the taking.
We needed someone to come off the bench and bring something different to our attacking approach and we didnt have that. Walcott certainly isnt the answer to teams who sit deep and Wenger needs to address this before the window closes.
To be entirely honest.
I think bar the first 5/10 mins. The defense didnt play that badly.
Our midfielders seemed to be doing everything they could to invite pressure onto them. Misplaced passes, ridicilous clearances that bounced back into our box. Over and over and over again.
Im actually impressed we kept a clean sheet. Largely down to cech, but Im not ignoring the amount of shit our defenders had to deal with.
For me….. 2 points lost, but a point well earned.
Remember Bellerin having an absolut shocker against Dortmund away last season and then recovering brilliantly. If not, watch Gary Neville about it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz9AhhFjOLc
Having a horrible game doesn’t make you a bad player. Hopefully Chambers will recover.
Brilliantly explained to the people with short term memories.
Thought Gabriel acquitted himself nicely, to be fair. There were some questionable passes, but it’s not like he’s played much. He snapped into some very well-timed and critical tackles and his style of play mirrors that of Koscielny. Think it was quite an astute buy and the thought of him having to slot in (with Per) doesn’t bother me in the least.
I’d like to see Chambers start against Newcastle.
Chambers qualities belong more in defensive mid field. Also he has little prem experience under his belt as he was not a regular at Southampton(Cline was) his coach then even claimed surprise at Arsenal coming for him. These mistakes should not be at our expense but that of another prem side. Send him out on loan. How cam we have Jenkinson with more experience on loan and Chambers in the team?
Callum, you will be fine mate, you have an honest face, a good attitude, mates with Chambo and good hair…