Calum Chambers reveals his Aston Villa ambition as Arsenal point made
Latest Aston Villa transfer news via BirminghamLive brings you the January recruit embracing summer competition for his place in Steve Gerrard's team
Calum Chambers has invited competition for places ahead of the summer transfer window and has firmly set his sights on European football.
The centre-back was a surprise arrival from Arsenal in January with Villa boss Steven Gerrard looking to bolster his defensive options after Axel Tuanzebe’s loan spell was cut short. Chambers has since made 10 appearances for Villa, including eight starts, offering quality competition for places, as well as another option in defensive midfield.
Having been active in the January market, Gerrard has not hidden his desire to recruit further new faces this summer. Despite Chambers’ arrival, Villa continue to be linked with signing a new centre-half , but the 27-year-old believes that is what helps create a winning mentality and is ready to fight for his place.
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"You've got to know at a club like this, with the ambition the club has, there's always going to be people coming in, always going to be people they're looking at wanting to buy to strengthen the squad," Chambers told Sky Sports . "For me, that's normal and that's what I've been used to in my whole career at Arsenal.
"I think competition for places is healthy. I think if you're comfortable knowing you're going to start every game, you can drop your standards, so knowing that there's competition, it keeps you on your toes and keeps your performance levels high.
"To be a good team you need to have everyone at their best level of performance every single game, so I believe that having a lot of quality players and options is healthy."
Though Villa still have an outside chance of achieving a top-half finish with a statement win over Manchester City on Sunday, Chambers is aware that Gerrard expects more from his squad. Having discussed the importance of building a competitive atmosphere around Bodymoor Heath, the England international has already set his sights on Villa’s aims for next season.
"We all want European football," Chambers continued. "I know the club do and we're very ambitious. I think that's the goal we need to set. What happens next season, I can't predict that, but that's going to be our goal.
"We need to aim high and I think we all need to believe that. I think that would be a good starting block going into next season with the ambition to be competing for a spot there and then see how the season goes."