Calum Chambers says he’s very comfortable asking for advice from Arsenal teammates Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny and is content at the progress he’s made at the Emirates since moving from Southampton in 2014.
After a whirlwind first six months in London, which included a first senior cap for England, the 21-year-old has struggled to secure first team game time this season. He insists though that he continues to improve his all-around game and is as motivated as ever in training.
Away on international duty with the England under-21s Chambers told Reuters: “I feel I have learned so much over the last two years and I am happy. I don’t think it happened too quickly. It just happened very quickly.
“It was a whirlwind start but I took it game by game and enjoyed it. At the moment, I have changed position to centre back. I’m not getting so much game time but I am still working in training and trying to fight for my place.
“I’m not down or anything. When you are not in the team, you have to prepare for games as if you are in. You have to do everything the same,” he added.
“I feel I can go up to them (Mertesacker and Koscielny) and ask them anything and learn from them. I watch them in games all the time, learning, and it is helping me get better and better.”
Back in October, Mertesacker admitted he was impressed by the challenge Chambers presented for both himself and the other centre-back options, including Gabriel.
“He’s a good guy and we challenge each other every single day in training. That’s what it’s all about. He’s eager to learn, he really fancies challenging every single centre back and that’s something you need.
“When you step up as a young talent, you need to challenge the old lads. It’s really good to have him so that we can improve. You never stop working, you never stop doing things because there’s someone behind you – in a respectful way – who is giving absolutely everything in every single training session.
“That’s what my feeling is. When he does that, he’s got a great chance to develop as one of the top centre backs.”
Chambers has only started one game in the Premier League this season – against Liverpool in August – and looked both nervy and rusty. He did though improve in that game as the Gunners claimed a clean sheet.
Even though he is essential to our squad as cover for cb.
I sometimes wonder if it would be better for his personal growth if he goes out on loan to have more games.
with our injury record, three excellent centre backs plus one promising youngster in reserve would be your absolute minimum coverage. There’s every chance he’ll get some game time and I think the bigger difference is that having Cech in goal gives us the additional security which will help Chambers learn if he gets a run.
Read carefully what I’ve written. I have clearly mentioned he’s very essential to our squad as cover.
I’m talking about his personal growth and not of Arsenal Fc in this case.
According to me he needs a run of games which he can’t get at arsenal at the moment. Look at John Stones as example, he’s developing into a great player due to regular play time. I believe chambers has the potential to do the same.
Arsenal’s short term needs will always come before a player’s development needs, because we can always buy another defender in the future, but we can’t get one in tomorrow if one of our main three gets injured. So, yes, regular play would probably improve him, but it’s not going to be offered to him unless he is no longer essential to us. Essentially this is a rhetorical question and not really of much interest to us selfish “living in the moment” Gooners. The interesting question would be “How can we get him more game time in a competitiive environment so… Read more »
His peak won’t be until he is over 25. So he has some time to go, but sounds like he has his head screwed on properly. Look forward to him improving and hopefully become first choice in time. Would be great to see, if it happens.
Will we ever see chambers and corporal together at Arsenal?
In a few years time we could have a “gooner core” of Jenks, Shez and Chambers!
I have very high hopes for this lad.
But anyone know why he sort of stopped being in the team the 2nd half of the season?
He had a poor game away at Southampton but after that I didn’t see him at all last season
Because Mertesacker, Koscielny, and Gabriel were all healthy at the same time.
Its not just Chambers, Gabriel is also learning from Meterscielny. There is this woeful perception that Metersecker needs to be replaced by Gabriel. Yes maybe in the future but at the moment, the German is given little credit for his work in particular his positioning (he doesn’t always get it right) is generally immaculate. What he lacks in speed, he makes up for in being there already. Chambers may or may not evolve into the cback of the future. He has good attributes which suggest he can, namely his technical ability is pretty decent and he is calm under pressure.… Read more »
I can’t remember a time when we’ve been better covered at centre back – long may the competition and apprenticeship continue.
Make sure he doesn’t learn the offside traps from kos.lol
Calum Chambers says he’s very comfortable asking for advice from Arsenal teammates Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny… sadly this pretty much consists of… “Hey guys, the bench is hard, do you know where I can find a cushion?” Sadly the bulk of the First team squad who aren’t picked to play on a weekly basis are pretty much the only players we have at the Club who get hardly any competitive game time, and they’re the guys who need it most. We see that whenever we play a second string game, like in the League Cup or some Champions League… Read more »
Seems a nice guy but I really doesn’t fill me with confidence. Doesn’t look sound technically when the ball is zipped into him I’m worried about a striker nicking the ball away from his first touch.. Comparisons with John Stones are often made I just feel like Stones is a lot more mobile and quick on the turn, Chambers seems naturally very flat footed. I think he’d make a better destroyer defensive midfielder to be honest.