Calum Chambers addresses his rare Aston Villa chance after Unai Emery's U-turn
Aston Villa boss Unai Emery called on Calum Chambers on Saturday, despite telling the player in the last two transfer windows that he could leave
Calum Chambers hadn't played any Premier League football since April of last year - but he always intended to be ready the moment Aston Villa needed him. With the centre half department ravaged by injury, and Tyrone Mings, Ezri Konsa and Diego Carlos already missing, Chambers was summoned at half time on Saturday in the win over Nottingham Forest after Pau Torres required a substitution.
Chambers, who has played in various stages of the Europa Conference League campaign this season, was informed by Unai Emery that he was free to leave the club both in the summer and in the January transfer window; Chambers was the subject of interest from West Bromwich Albion and Hull City in the winter but he remained instead at Villa Park, despite not having any guarantees about game time.
Clearly well down the pecking order when everyone is fit, while Emery doesn't have his preferred options to call upon at the back, and with his hand forced at the interval during the 4-2 victory, the Spaniard turned to Chambers despite him not being a part of his plans and the centre half slotted in alongside Clement Lenglet to help see Villa over the line. The former Arsenal defender took to social media after the game.
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He said: "No matter what, I train my hardest every day to make sure I’m at the best level I can be to perform! Picking up these 3 points is exactly what I work for! #UTV."
Emery was only too happy to praise Chambers for his contribution in the second half despite having made it clear previously that he was happy for him to depart Villa in various transfer windows: “We needed Calum Chambers and he played and he helped us. We needed as well to use other players like Morgan Rogers and Nicolo Zaniolo and they were showing commitment like we were speaking about before.
"In the summer, I said let [Chambers] him leave. In the winter, I said let him leave. But he decided to stay here. He's a very good man. I respect him a lot. I am including him in everything and today I am very happy for him. We have to have players scoring goals and adding assists. We were speaking about winning through a clean sheet but when we are winning and conceding some goals we have to accept it."