Aston Villa certainly made no bones in diving into the January transfer market to strengthen their squad with four new senior players making their way to the Midlands club.
One player that Villa managed to secure a deal for out of the blue was Calum Chambers, who joined the Villans on a three-and-a-half-year contract on a free transfer from fellow Premier League club Arsenal towards the back end of the month.
With the 27-year-old predominantly playing as a defender throughout his career, it appeared that Villa may have brought him in to replace Axel Tuanzebe, who had left the Midlands club earlier in the window.
However, in addition to being another centre-back option for Gerrard alongside the likes of Tyrone Mings, Ezri Konsa and Kortney Hause in the squad, Chambers could also prove to be a temporary fix for an issue that the Villa boss will have to deal with.
On the chalkboard
Having missed out on signing Rodrigo Bentancur from Juventus before he joined Tottenham Hotspur, as well as having Marvelous Nakamba still out injured, Gerrard could use Chambers as a makeshift defensive-midfield option given how he has experience of playing there in the past.
With 206 senior club appearances under his belt, 40 of them have seen the Englishman play as a defensive-midfielder, showing that he could be a viable option for Gerrard and Villa in that position, at least until Nakamba returns to full fitness.
During the 2018/19 Premier League season where he was on loan with Fulham, the £10.8m-rated figure, who has been praised for his “serious” performances in the past by former Arsenal boss Unai Emery, made a total of 31 league appearances for the west London club, with 21 of them being as a holding-midfielder.
The £52k-per-week earner’s overall performances in that season with Fulham earned him an overall rating of 6.82/10 from WhoScored, making him their third-highest rated player of the campaign and showing how capable he is of playing in numerous positions in the Premier League.
Taking all of this into account, Chambers’ clear versatility could make him a very useful squad option for Villa moving forward, with a potential stint in midfield in the coming weeks paving the way for him to hit the ground running in a Villa shirt and show why the club made a swoop to sign him.
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