Arsene Wenger believes that Calum Chambers showed great strength of character to come back stronger in the second half against Liverpool, despite a lack of confidence.

The 20-year-old was thrown in the deep end after injuries meant he had to step in at centre-back with Gabriel. Unfortunately, it wasn’t his best performance and, after some defensive slip-ups, it was Petr Cech who kept us in the game thanks to two amazing saves.

The boss hasn’t taken the shaky performance to heart and doesn’t believe the defender will have either.

“He showed character,” Wenger said. “The positive of the night, he did not have the best performance in the first half, was the way he recovered.

“He showed his mental strength. He has lost a bit of confidence compared to the player he was last year.

The boss continued, “I have spoken to him and he’s a strong footballer, a dedicated player who is ready to work day and night. He has the talent to be a good player.

“I don’t think it will have killed him [to replace him]. I did not sub him as I wanted to save my offensive options.

“It gives him time to recover. But we wanted to win the game. He recovered quite well in the second half.”

Chambers will likely drop back to the bench after Mertesacker is predicted to make a return against Newcastle on Saturday.

Worrying about Chambers’ performance against Liverpool is unnecessary at this point. He hadn’t had much game time for a while and he was bound to be a little rusty when called upon, completely unprepared.

Hopefully he’ll learn from this and, if he has to stand in again, will be more than ready to deliver.