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#3 Rob Holding
A signing that flew under the radar for Arsenal last summer, young defender Rob Holding was thrown way into the deep end when he made his first-team debut last August in the Premier League opener against Liverpool.
Holding was painfully exposed as the Reds ran out 4-3 winners. It could well have signalled that he wasn’t ready for the big time, but the England u21 international bounced back in style.
When Arsene Wenger switched to a 3-4-3 system in the final two months of the season, Holding returned to the starting line-up as part of a three-man defence and looked totally at home. In fact, Arsenal won all six of the Premier League games that Holding started in, and the youngster then went on to star in their FA Cup final win, coincidentally also against Chelsea.
If Holding can continue the form he ended last season with – and shut out Chelsea’s forward line again as he did three months ago in the cup final – then Gareth Southgate will have little choice but to look at him for England’s 2018 World Cup squad. The time is ripe for Rob Holding and the Community Shield could be an excellent spring board.
