The Athletic’s Holly Percival has claimed that Steven Gerrard should play Calum Chambers in Aston Villa’s next game.
Coming up this weekend, the Villans will host Arsenal at Villa Park in the Premier League. A potentially interesting aspect of the game will be the opportunity for Chambers to play against his former side.
The Englishman left the Gunners this past January, having been at the club since 2014. Of course, after spending so long with the London outfit, he will know a fair bit about how they operate, and may also be keen to get revenge on the side that let him go.
Should Calum Chambers start against Arsenal?
Yes
No
Taking that into account, Percival urged Gerrard to make the most of this possible ‘vendetta’ and start the centre-back on Saturday.
Speaking on the 1874 podcast, she said (20:04): “Part of me thinks he’ll [Gerrard] want Chambers to play against his former club. It’s always kind of that little bit of a vendetta against your previous club.
“I mean, it doesn’t seem like Chambers left Arsenal un-amicably, so maybe there wouldn’t really be much of a grudge match there.
“But I think, you know, if you’ve got a player who knows how the other team plays and knows how to counter them, why why not try and utilise that to your advantage?
“So part of me thinks having Chambers on would be more of an advantage than a disadvantage.”
TIF thoughts on Calum Chambers and Aston Villa…
According to The Mirror, Arsenal let Chambers leave for free before his contract had even expired. Perhaps being discarded like that may have hurt the Englishman. But even if he is still on good terms with the club, he’ll no doubt want to win on the weekend for his new side.
It’s safe to say the defender has already made a positive impact for Villa too. Indeed, he scored a brilliant goal in a recent victory against Leeds United, while he also produced an outrageous pass in a win over Southampton.
If he can bring that quality and his knowledge of his former side to the table against Arsenal, you can see why Percival feels like he could make a difference this weekend.
In other news: ‘At the minute…’ – Injury guru now drops big Aston Villa injury claim ahead of Arsenal