Calum Chambers exit at Aston Villa surely nailed on in January, he may never start for Unai Emery again
Aston Villa defender Calum Chambers has now become a forgotten man at Villa Park and his increasing lack of minutes under Unai Emery may well mean he is nailed on to quit in January.
The former Arsenal and Fulham defender has made just two starts this season [Transfermarkt], both coming in Europe and one of those appearances was another in which he struggled, in the 3-2 defeat to Legia Warsaw.
Chambers was guilty of some comical and poor defending in the first half when Legia Warsaw perilously targeted his right-hand flank to completely expose his defensive frailties.
He was critically half-asleep on both of Legia’s goals when he allowed the cross for the first before failing to track the runner for the second.
Since then, Chambers has been nowhere to be seen again in Emery’s starting line-up, capping off an incredibly difficult year at Villa Park.
In his 17 games at Villa Park last season, Chambers only made just two starts and was a regular benchwarmer after Emery was appointed back in November.
In those games, Chambers didn’t contribute to any clean sheets which is made all the more telling given Ezri Konsa and Tyrone Mings, when paired together, during Emery’s tenure helped themselves to nine clean sheets [WhoScored]. The worrying numbers don’t stop there too.
The 28-year-old only averaged 0.5 tackles per game, 0.6 tackles, won just 47% of his ground duels and a disastrous 33% of his aerial duels, as per SofaScore which made him an unreliable commodity in the Aston Villa defence.
Even with Tyrone Mings out injured for the long haul, Emery will always turn to Diego Carlos, Ezri Konsa and Pau Torres over Chambers and the reason he features at right-back is simply because Emery has no specialist replacement for Matty Cash.
Barring any critical injuries to Cash, it remains to be seen when Chambers will start for Emery again in an Aston Villa shirt.
It’s clear Chambers’ place in the Villa eleven is bordering on non-existent and with the defender now in his prime years at 28, he needs to be playing football which means he is surely nailed on to quit in January.
In other Aston Villa news, a Villa youngster could be handed a new deal at the club after his stunning progress.