Calum Chambers admits that he’s found this season frustrating because he’s struggled to play.
On Thursday evening, Chambers made his first Premier League start of the season during Arsenal’s 3-2 win over Crystal Palace and the 22-year-old admits his lack of playing time has been frustrating.
“It was great to be back out there,” he said. “It has been a bit of a frustrating start to the season for me, having been injured for quite a lot of it, so I’m glad to be back out there and to get the 90 minutes as well.
“It’s really pleasing, so I just want to work on that and improve going on from there.”
While Chambers has previously impressed during his rare chances to feature for the Gunners’ first team, injuries have prevented him from getting a proper run in the side.
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The defender was sidelined from September until November with a hip injury. However, now that he’s fit and Nacho Monreal is unfortunately out of action, Chambers is finally getting a chance to show Arsene Wenger what he’s made of. Again.
Chambers’ display against Palace wasn’t fantastic. He started off well but quickly looked a little bit nervous and had real trouble keeping Wilfried Zaha under control, although he’s hardly the first to struggle with the player being linked with Arsenal as an Alexis Sanchez replacement.
As the match wore on and Chambers grew tired, Zaha ran rings around him.
However, as the centre-back says, he’s only going to improve with more minutes and while Monreal is out, we might as well utilise the players we have.
Hopefully, as he grows fitter, his confidence will improve and he can develop into the top defender we’ve all been waiting on seeing.