Rob Holding: Arsenal Squad Have Full Belief In Arteta’s Vision, They’ll Challenge Again

By The Editor
on 16th October 2023

Rob Holding is backing his old side to challenge again…

Former Arsenal defender Rob Holding is backing his former teammates to launch another serious assault on the Premier League title this season, he told talkSPORT.

Holding ended his seven-year association with the club last summer after securing a move to Crystal Palace for a reported fee of around £4 million.

The 27-year-old was drafted into the team towards the backend of last season after William Saliba and Takehiro Tomiyasu suffered season-ending injuries.

It coincided with the most difficult run of fixtures of the season and with the team unable to play in the style which guided us to league leaders, we hit a poor run of form and gifted the title to Manchester City.

Mikel Arteta aimed to guard against having his campaign derailed due to injuries and embarked on an impressive spending spree, though defender Jurrien Timber suffered a serious ACL on his full debut.

For Holding, now an outsider, he stated that Arteta has the full belief of the squad and that will allow them to challenge for the league once again.

“With Arteta now they’ve got a hell of a manager who’s going to go on to do great things,” the former Bolton man said.

“His tactical awareness and how he sees the game is incredible. I didn’t realise how much I didn’t know about football until I’d been in a meeting with him a few times and you start to think that he sees football differently to how anyone has seen it in the world around me.

“The way they’ve started the season I’m sure they can carry on and go for another title charge.

“He’s got a team there who are believers in his system and what he sees and I think that’s why over the last few years they’ve kicked on,” Holding added.

It may be harsh to say, but the absence of the likes of Holding in our squad has given fans more belief that we have the strength in depth to compete.

The fact that we still employ Cedric Soares is rather annoying as it’s those types of players who symbolise a period when we were far from competing.

Hopefully, Timber returns soon and we’re not left in a position where we have to rely on the aforementioned Portuguese international.