Rob Holding is a bright talent, but Arsenal must manage him carefully.

A few months ago, Holding was better than Cannavaro.

The fans’ chant might have been firmly tongue in cheek, but it was an indication of how well he performed when he became a first team regular towards the end of last season. It all culminated in a great performance in the FA Cup final, a performance marked by the iconic image of him playing mind games with Chelsea striker Diego Costa.

This season, it’s as if none of that happened, and Arsenal just signed a 21-year-old from Bolton for £2m. The sudden decline in form perfectly demonstrates the danger of rating young players: Good form can often distract from the flaws in a young player’s game, but bad form can make it seem like they have no talent at all.

Make no mistake, form has deserted Holding and Arsenal must now carefully manage him to ensure his confidence isn’t completely destroyed.

Currently, they aren’t doing the best job of it.

After a poor game against Leicester, Arsene Wenger opted to leave him out of the defeat against Stoke citing damaged confidence. Holding would then be thrown into the game against Liverpool, a game which would have done nothing for his confidence.

The home game against Bournemouth would have been a nice game for him, but he was left out of the squad entirely.

Wenger seems to be sending him mixed signals; at once telling him he’s good enough to play away at Anfield against a rampaging Liverpool, but not playing well enough to get through a home game against a poor Bournemouth team.

Little wonder, then, he struggled against Cologne.

Being subbed at half-time would have done nothing to help him, and now there’s a real danger of him being left out from here on, much in the same way Calum Chambers was in 2015.

Wenger will want to protect his players, but at the same time, he shouldn’t coddle them.

The only way Holding regains form and confidence is for him to play matches.

The question, then, is what matches he plays. At this point, throwing Holding back in against Chelsea seems a bad idea no matter how you look at it.

At the same time, cup matches against the likes of Doncaster and BATE Borisov are far too infrequent and not much of a learning experience at all.

A smattering of Premier League games against lesser opposition plus regular cup appearances seems ideal to give him a firm platform to build off again. A Calum Chambers type situation, where he’s left out games all season with no opportunity in sight, must be avoided.

Wenger acknowledged at a Football Writer’s event that young defenders will cost teams points, but stressed that a manager should take the chance if the player deserves it.

That all sounds well and good in theory, but in practice, this is precisely the situation Wenger finds himself in.

The coming weeks will reveal just how much faith he has in Holding’s talent.