Wenger: Arsenal will look to loan out Chambers

With the impending acquisition of Shkodran Mustafi, Arsenal suddenly have a glut of centre backs: Laurent Koscielny and Mustafi will obviously start, Rob Holding had one so-so game and one good game, and Gabriel will return after the October international break, with Per Mertesacker still about 4-5 months away. Calum Chambers, who ended last season as the 4th choice centre back, is the odd man out here, and Arsène Wenger confirmed that the club will look to find Chambers a loan club.

on Calum Chambers’ future being affected by a new signing…Future? No. The fact that he could go out somewhere and play? Yes.

This is fairly obvious. There has been some misguided talk of Chambers being at fault for the Liverpool game, but the simple fact is he wasn’t. Wenger chose Holding for a myriad of reasons, one of which being that Holding, having actually played in the last year, doesn’t have low confident and isn’t rusty, unlike Chambers (which is the manager’s fault). That Holding had a good game alongside Koscielny isn’t death knell for Chambers’ future (he too had good games alongside Koscielny at the beginning of his Arsenal tenure before being moved to a position that did not suit him), nor is the signing of Mustafi; Arsenal are going to need three centre backs in the future, and Per Mertesacker is entering the final year of his contract, Koscielny will be 32 in September 2017, and Gabriel is not good.

What Chambers needs is more good time, and it’s good to see the club recognise that. After all, the rest of us reached that conclusion months ago.