Mikel Arteta says Calum Chambers won’t be going out on loan in January and that he hopes to give playing time to the centre-back in the remainder of the campaign.
After 11 months on the sidelines working his way back from ACL surgery, the 26-year-old made his long-awaited return in the Europa League in December, playing 20 minutes against Rapid Vienna and the full 90 away at Dundalk.
Since then, Chambers has only made the subs bench twice – for the Premier League draw with Crystal Palace and the FA Cup win over Newcastle – leading to suggestions he might use the transfer window to look elsewhere for opportunities.
“I don’t think that is going to happen. I am really happy with Calum,” said Arteta ahead of Saturday’s trip to Southampton.
“He has gone through a really difficult period. He has worked so hard. He has looked really good in the last few weeks in training.
“He is not even thinking about his knee right now. We want to give him minutes when we can because he is a player that we believe in.”
As a homegrown player, Chambers doesn’t run the risk of being jettisoned when we re-register squads for the Premier League and Europa League at the end of the month.
However, after the recruitment of Australian Mat Ryan, the Gunners will need to shift (or face leaving out) a non-homegrown player to accommodate any further signings, such as Real Madrid’s Martin Odegaard, in the Premier League squad. For the Europa League, we’d need to drop two players.
While Alex Runarsson is the prime candidate to be cut on the domestic front, it’s possible that Shkodran Mustafi, who only has six months left on his Gunners contract, could miss out in Europe, which would bump Chambers up the centre-back pecking order in that competition at least.
Good, like him a lot and hoping he can step up as central defender and/or defensive central midfield.
Bizarre that Calum has been with us for seven years now and we are still not sure how good he is or even where his best position is.
I suppose the only way to work that out would be to play him. But he needs to get through Holding, Luiz, Gabriel and Mari. Not sure which one of those is going to be too happy about giving up game time.
As much as I like Luiz as a sapien, maybe given he probably leaves in the summer, we move away from using him week in, week out.
He’s had a very unusual career with us, hasn’t he. I remember when he joined as a teenager with all the fanfare of a £16 million transfer (a lot of money for a “domestic” youngster in those days) only for AW to throw him in at the deep end almost from the start. That didn’t do him much good overall and we had the inevitable AW loan-outs after that. If MA actually gives him a fair amount of playing time, it seems he “hopes to” according to the report, then we should see if he’s up to it. I hope… Read more »
Even if we like him we probably should think about selling him this summer to raise funds. We have Mari/Holding/Gabriel & likely Saliba as our CB’s next year. Saliba will be in year 3 of a 5 year contract at that point & we’ve seen his former partner (rated less highly) performing extremely well at Leicester this year. Realistically if Saliba isn’t playing with us next year he probably doesn’t have a future here.
He’s gotta play before we sell him otherwise he’ll be another one we have to sell at a cut price. Can’t imagine we’d even recoup the fee we paid for him if we were to sell him right now.
Ok but realistically when is he going to play? The Europa League is our best shot at the CL and we’re at the stage now where we’ll likely see our best 11 playing in that = no games there for him. He’s not going to get games in the PL as he’s behind: Mari, Gabriel, Luiz, Holding and we have to take every game seriously. Maybe he gets a game or two in the FA Cup but that’s about it. I don’t really see why we’re keeping him around this winter unless it’s just as a 5th choice in case… Read more »
As I said I’d play him in the cup and possibly a Europa game (if possible, though might be tough) and some league games as rotation. I think he is on par with an aging Luiz (although he’s been decent this season). But Luiz basically has no value and little future beyond this year with arsenal so I would be tempted to get Chambers ahead of him in the pecking order, but doesnt seem likely since arteta basically has Luiz ahead of Gabriel right now. Thus we’re going to lose Chambers on the cheap most likely. Disappointing because he’s a… Read more »
Well, there’s no point in keeping Chambers then. Personally, I’d rather use the latter part of the season to give all the available players in that position the chance to show what they can do and then make a decision. I have my doubts as to whether Saliba will be with us next season as he appears to be set on a permanent move away, and I don’t really blame him given what’s happened to him since joining us. We’ll see.
His contact is up next year as well. We’re reaching a point where some of these players (chambers, Amn – he’ll be 25 next year) aren’t really young players anymore and they’re not playing here. Time to move on
Your customary pop at Wenger.
Was there anything that our most successful manager in the club’s history ever got right in your eyes, except perhaps, one assumes, leaving……………?
wenger had a great record of developing young players so id say he had a better idea of when to give them games at the right times than most. not that youd like to admit that with your thrown in at the deep end rubbish
#getoutwhenyoucanJoel
AW threw all promising youngsters at the deep end. The great ones swam and won great things. In the age of Mbappe, Sancho and Balogun, I don’t think there’s a thing like biding your time. It’s been a mix of bad luck and terrible form for CC to find himself at this stage.
Ryan (if registered)
Cedric-Chambers-Gaby-AMN
Elneny-Willock
Pepe-Willian-Martinelli
Nketiah
That is a lot of rotation, but it’s pretty necessary given the fixture list.
I think if you’ve got reasonable confidence that the pre-Partey side could beat Southampton, you put him on the fa cup team, and I’d switch Pepe and Willian but otherwise yep. Rely on the powerful midfield this time to support the weaker forwards.
I’m not fully convinced, but I think anything is possible with Martinelli in the team and he has to play here. Also if playing Willian in the cup keeps him out of the EPL starting line-up then get him in. As much as we love the FA Cup it simply has to be the lowest priority right now. Europa league gives us a chance at a trophy and getting into Champions league (as does the league) and we simply have to continue to aspire to at least Euro places in the league. Relief at getting into the top-half just shows… Read more »
As we’re going down to the south coast, it might be better to source some ships figure head, put it in an Arsenal kit and play it instead of Willian?
It would be far more mobile and move quicker, for a start.
Jokes aside, there is reality about that squad. I’d love to see Balogun start ahead of Eddie, but Arteta made it clear yesterday Eddie is ahead of him (which I think is going to cost us any chance of resigning Balogun – who has a much higher ceiling than Eddie). Frankly (like most I think), I’d rather never see Willian play another game for Arsenal, but the reality is we’re going to see him play MANY more games for Arsenal. He’s going to play tomorrow with almost complete certainty. Ceballos would start, but he doesn’t seem fit for the game.… Read more »
I agree about the necessity of rotation, my doubts are about the overall quality of the squad that we’ll be asking to do it. There may (well) be no choice though as the season wears on and injuries, suspensions and the inevitable tiredness set in.
Fully agree. I don’t think that team I put up is super shakey. It should be solid, but there are a lot of players with big questions hanging over them on that list. But it seems we both acknowledge and agree we have to rotate for this game. We have 10 games in the next 36 days (more if we get through this round). We simply HAVE to rotate heavily here as its the lowest priority.
Always looked a promising and reliable player. Offers good versatility for the remainder of the season as well
Chambers in for mustafi sounds great to me
My missus in for Mustafi sounds great to me…..
You want your missus to get in with Mustafi?
Weird…
In for, ie replacement – not in with.
Try to keep up.
And before any further smartarses comment, no – I do not want Mustafi as a replacement for my missus.
I actually love your hatred of Mustafi. You must have an alert for any time his name is mentioned on here😂😂
Cannot wait for him to take his ginger beard, his idiotic grin and his fucking useless defending and leave our football club once and for all.
Well, I for one certainly don’t “hate” Mustafi or any other player. However, I do think Mustafi’s overall performance has never justified his (still) massive fee or his large wage packet since joining the club. In my opinion he must go down as one of the poorest buys that the club has made over the last ten years.
Mustafi should be given 40 lashes outside the emirates stadium before he leaves in my opinion.
a suitable punishment for all his shit defending over the years and a nice tribute to our glourious oil rich stadium sponsors.
Only 40? How about one for every blunder or better yet, one for every token offside call when out of position
A wise decision.
A good backup to be able to call upon.
Interesting. Does this mean a Mustafi exit?
Let’s hope so.
The champagne is on ice for the day that goal-shipping pillock finally leaves.
Definitely seems like Arteta prefers Mustafi at this point, he was on the bench when we had a few injuries, not Chambers.
Saying that, with the non-HG quota filling up again Mustafi will likely be left out of the Europe league squad.
Still, Chambers is currently 5/6th choice at CB and probably 4th choice at RB.
Surely him going on loan makes sense? If we want him as part of the squad next season it gets him game time to get match fit. If we want to sell him in the summer it puts him in the shop window.
If we can move Mustafi on this month, bring in Odegaard along with Mat Ryan how would Arsenal fans rate this window?
Best winter window in a long while. I think we hould be looking at backup lb as well. We really made the best of loan signings with cedric and mari, hope it continues.
There’s rumors of a loandeal for Ryan Bertrand. Don’t know if there’s any truth to it.
He is home grown I think so makes sense taking him as backup LB.
Southampton would be out of their minds to let that happen given they have a genuine shot at a European place.
As long as we can bring in Ødegaard I’d be happy and consider this a very good window.
Chambers did really well at Fulham on loan where he played a whole season as a holding midfielder and was voted their player of the season if I remember correctly. Once fully fit, I wonder if he could be an option there; with only Elneny and Xhaka ahead of him it’s not as if he’s got to muscle his way past World Cup winners.
Yes this could be an option. He’s versatile, good on the ball and strengthens the squad.
Totally forgot he was their player of the season.
Player of the season in a team that went down 10 points from saftey with a -47 GD id say it was slim pickings to find a player of the season.
He is far too slow to play in midfield for a top side. hes a squad player Cb at best .
Ryan has a UK passport so he I don’t think he’ll count towards the non-HG number.
So does Tierney, but he isn’t homegrown. Trained for 3 years at English (or Welsh) club before the ago of 21. Scottish teams don’t even count so Maty’s UK passport doesn’t do much, except of course allow him to work in the UK without visas.
Chambers and AMN are in the same ‘master of none’ zone at arsenal, but solid players who solve headaches for the manager with their versatility. I doubt either will be at arsenal come summer.
I don’t understand why people downvote this type of comment. Chamber’s contract expires at the end of next year so we either need to sign him to a new deal or sell him. AMN will be 25 next year – he shouldn’t be willing to simply be a backup at several positions at that point in his career.
We’re a self sustaining club which means if we can get decent money for fringe players we should take it.
Sounds like he will start against he’s old club tomorrow.
His
Get Mustafi out the door this month.
Holding, Chambers
Gabriel, Mari, Luiz
Should be enough.
Then swap Saliba for Luiz next season.
Numerically we could loan out both Nelson + Willock in the forward positions
Half a season of regular football in the championship could potentially aid both their development, either pumping their value, or returning to our squad with more maturity next season
We’d be left with:
Smith-Rowe, Odegaard?
Saka, Pepe, Willian
Aubameyang, Martinelli
Lacazette, Nketiah, Balogun
Good news but there’s no point in keeping Chambers unless he’s given appropriate playing time. It seems that MA “hopes” to do that but I hope that Chambers will actually get it. I’ve not been convinced about Chambers overall – and you have to look at things overall – but in fairness he did seem to improve prior to his injury so let’s see if he can do it or not now – but we won’t know if he’s warming the bench for most of the time! If he does, that’s great, if he doesn’t then he’ll probably move on… Read more »
Chamber stays is good for us, loyal experience lad, what I don’t understand is Odegaar loan attempt, he has no experience nor sufficient playing minutes this season, besides it’s unlikely Real Madrid will sell at the end of loan spell,
I believe an established creative midfielder would be the right option considering half the season already gone.
If somebody can reason this out.
We’re not likely to be able to get an established creative midfielder on a loan deal this winter. Even if we had the money to buy one now, the emergence of ESR means that we don’t necessarily want to block his path to first team football, particularly as we need to convince him to sign a new deal (18 months left on contract). Odegaar is someone who has shown a lot of promise and likely is willing to come in and rotate with ESR at that role. We might be able to pair him with Partey as well.
Wish he had the same faith in Saliba smh…
The handling of Saliba since joining us has been an embarrassment and may well lead to his leaving the club next season. That would be a great shame in my opinion.
I think MA wants his own recruitment. Saliba was signed when Emery was with us. Emery knew him when he was managing PSG.
no lies i completely forgot about that guy
You can see how the squad is shaping up and where things need improvement… GK – Leno/Ryan RB – Hector/Cedric RCB – Holding/Chambers/Luis LCB – Gabi/Mari LB – Tierney/???? M – Partey/AMN/Elneny M – Xhaka/Ceballos/Willock M – ESR/???? S – Saka/Pepe/Willian S – Auba/Martinelli/Nelson S – Laca/Balogun/Nketiah This January window we need to get cover for Tierney & ESR (seems like something in the pipeline with back up for ESR) In the summer some decisions need to be made and I think an upgrade on Xhaka is required, we will see Ceballos return to Madrid, Pepe will probably be sold… Read more »
Ship out Willian
Then let Mustafi leave for the love of God!!
Surely with Kolasinac off the list that leaves space?
This poor chap’s career is in danger of ruin. Wenger could not figure out where to use him. He came off the back of fantastic performances for Soton at Right Back. but was shuffled first briefly into the midfield bc we lacked options and then into Cback where he never really fully convinced. IMO I felt he should have been persevered at Rback. Then injuries and following which Arteta does not seem to fancy him. I’m not sure why we are not loaning him out if there is no intent to use him. The whole issues at Cback in terms… Read more »