Player Focus: Promising Start Suggests Chambers Will Realise Potential

Alexis Sánchez is Arsenal’s marquee summer signing, there is no question about that. The Chilean adds some much-needed tenacity to their frontline and gives Arsène Wenger more options in attack, with the 25-year-old able to spearhead the Arsenal offensive or play a supporting role behind the lead striker. Sánchez, however, was not the only acquisition at the Emirates this summer, with David Ospina, Mathieu Debuchy and Calum Chambers all following the striker to London.

Arsenal spent big to secure the signature of Chambers, especially when compared to the reported £15m required to sign Ospina and Debuchy. The goalkeeper arrives following a memorable World Cup with Colombia and had one of the best save success rates in Europe last season (80.2%). Debuchy, meanwhile, joins with 18 months’ worth of Premier League experience and is France’s first-choice right-back.

Chambers, though, had made just 22 top-flight appearances in his career before moving to the capital, 18 of which were starts at right-back for former club Southampton. The initial £11m coughed up to sign him is a risk, but Arsenal are paying for Chambers' potential. However, performances in recent wins over Manchester City and Crystal Palace along with Tuesday’s goalless draw with Besiktas suggest he is more than ready for regular first-team action.

The Gunners’ first-choice centre-back pairing last season was Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny. The duo formed a nigh-on impassable defensive partnership, helping to ensure no goalkeeper kept more Premier League clean sheets last season than Wojciech Szczesny behind them (16). Germany’s excursions at the 2014 World Cup, however, mean Mertesacker only recently returned to training with his team, and so Chambers was thrown in at the deep end alongside Koscielny in the Community Shield.

While the Citizens were without key men Sergio Agüero, Fernandinho and Vincent Kompany, to name three, goalkeeper Szczesny was rarely troubled in their 3-0 win in the season's curtain raiser, in part due to Chambers’ resilient display at the heart of the backline. Only midfielder Aaron Ramsey (8.84) gained a better WhoScored rating than Chambers (8.33) in the victory, reflecting what an impressive first competitive Arsenal start it was for the teenager.

His debut against City became that much harder when Nacho Monreal replaced Koscielny at half time, but Chambers was not daunted by a change of personnel at the back. No player made more interceptions (5) than the young defender in the encounter at Wembley and despite his lack of first-team action at centre-back, Chambers exhibited an impressive reading of the game. He has the confidence to hinder the opposition’s goalscoring chances before they manifest into something more dangerous, which is all the more important with midfield anchor Mikel Arteta now ruled out for two weeks.

While Arteta's absence will only heighten their need to sign a holding midfielder, Chambers’ defensive know-how means he can step foward when necessary and his ability to come away with the ball enables him to instigate attacks from the back. Arsenal are renowned for their possession-based game and the Saints academy product has shown he can start offensive moves as his pass success in his first three games (89.9%) implies.  

That only Ramsey (134) and Arteta (120) had more touches than Chambers (111) against Palace shows he is comfortable in possession, despite playing in a position where a mistake could prove costly. Arsenal had the lion's share of possession against the Eagles (76% to 24%) and Wenger insists his team dominate the ball from the outset. It's clear Chambers can adhere to his new manager's instructions.

From Arsenal's first three games of the campaign, only Ramsey (7.95) has recorded a better average rating than Chambers (7.74) reinforcing just how well the 19-year-old has played since moving to the capital. "I think he (Chambers) was once again very good and very convincing in his performance," Wenger said of the youngster after the Champions League 0-0 draw in Turkey and he has every right to be enthused by the defender’s start to life in an Arsenal shirt.

Mertesacker and Koscielny may be Wenger’s first choice centre-back pairing, but with the former having only just returned to training following Brazil 2014 and the latter carrying an Achilles problem, Chambers is expected to feature prominently in the opening stages of the campaign.

Should he maintain his early season form in the coming weeks, starting with a daunting trip to Everton on Saturday, Wenger will be confident he has a reliable backup in defence should either of his favoured starting duo be unavailable for any reason. It's possible he will feature as the holding midfielder when Arsenal travel to Goodison Park this weekend due to Arteta’s absence through injury, though that is unlikely to faze Chambers if his performances in his first three competitive Gunners appearances are anything to go by.

Arsenal spent big on the defender, in the hope that he has the might well become one of the finest English centre-backs in the game. Chambers has hit the ground running at the Emirates and it is possible that the teenager will realise his potential sooner than many expected.

Do you think Calum Chambers has shown enough that he will realise his potential for Arsenal? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below