Mikel Arteta claims Calum Chambers is ‘very close’ to playing for Arsenal again

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Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has told Football.London that he thinks Calum Chambers is now ‘very close’ to playing again.

The defender – signed from Southampton for £16million in 2014 – has been out of first-team action for almost a year, having suffered a season-ending injury in December 2019.

Chambers has recently played for Arsenal’s Under-23’s as he looks to step up his return, but he now appears close to return.

Arteta has today suggested that Chambers is ‘very close’ to returning to action, and is ‘evolving really well’.

Arteta believes Chambers could be back playing in the near future, and talked up how impressive Chambers was before his injury.

“He’s evolving really well,” said Arteta. “He’s played some minutes with the under-23s in recent weeks. It’s been a long injury and you know that injuries like that take a long time to get your body, your bio-mechanics completely natural to compete. But I will say that now he’s very close to returning to play.”

“He got injured against Chelsea if I remember correctly and he was starting the game. He was having a really good time. I think his performances were much more stable, he was growing in confidence, he matured a lot from his spells on loan at different clubs as well. Then he’s also a fantastic character. He went through the injury in an incredible way, everyone that’s involved with him during the rehab, during training, says incredible things about him. He’s such a nice guy, a great character to have around, and is a player we can utilise in different positions which is really helpful as well for any squad. We want to have him back and I think he’s very close,” he added.

The 25-year-old hasn’t quite lived up to his billing when he arrived from Southampton, but he has shown glimpses of his quality – particularly last season.

Arsenal do though have a number of centre backs right now, including Gabriel Magalhaes, David Luiz, Rob Holding and Shkodran Mustafi, so a starting role is far from guaranteed.

Chambers is mobile and can play out from the back though, which could lend itself to playing alongside Gabriel – and with Arteta seemingly a fan, first-team football may not be far away.