Buy a midfielder or give him a shot?

As we all know by now Francis Coquelin has been ruled out for at least two months, sending Arsenal fans into a frantic mess and equally putting pressure on Arsene Wenger to go out in January and by a replacement, or at least someone to cover until the French midfielder recovers from his injury.

However, like me, a lot of the Arsenal faithful are not expecting much to be done by Wenger when the winter window opens next month as the Frenchman always seems to have a plan up his sleeve which doesn’t require the need to open his cheque book. And this may prove to be the case once again as the Frenchman could now call upon Calum Chambers to step in.

Although Chambers has plied his trade in the right-back position for both Southampton and now Arsenal for the majority of his career, he has struggled to get into the starting XI this season, with a handful of players both in the full-back and central defence all ahead of him in the pecking order.

But Wenger has previously stated that the 20-year-old’s future may well lie in a defensive midfield role, and the Frenchman could put his plan into action earlier than expected in the upcoming weeks, rather than bring in a new face.

Arsenal Under-21 coach Steve Gatting believes Chambers is capable of stepping-up to the plate during Coquelin’s absence after putting in an ‘excellent’ defensive midfield display against Brighton.

‘I think it was good for Calum to get 90 minutes under his belt and for such a young lad he has got a lot of experience and tonight I thought he was excellent.

‘The boss has seen him play several positions and it is handy for the first team to have a player like Calum.

‘He can play in central defence, at right-back and in midfield and he gives the boss options and that’s good for Calum to play in different options.’

There are a number of options for Wenger to consider if he chooses to sign another defensive midfielder this January, but it’s more likely that he will play Chambers in a deep-lying midfield role.

The question now is; would you rather see Wenger sign a new defensive midfielder next month or see him give Chambers a shot in the heart of the Arsenal midfield?