Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger believes his defender Calum Chambers showed character to recover from a shaky first-half performance against Liverpool last Monday and has backed him to make his mark in Saturday's game at Newcastle.
The 20-year-old signed from Southampton last summer and was given a torrid time by the Liverpool forward line in the opening 45 minutes of the game at Emirates Stadium, but he was part of an Arsenal back-line that kept a clean sheet in the 0-0 draw.
Chambers looks set to start for Arsenal in the continued absence of Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny, yet Wenger is backing the 20-year-old -- who was primarily used in a full-back role last season -- to impress at the heart of his defence at St. James' Park.
"He showed character," Wenger told the Arsenal website as he spoke of Chambers. "The positive of the night -- he did not have the best performance in the first half -- was the way he recovered. He showed his mental strength.
"He has lost a bit of confidence compared to the player he was last year. I have spoken to him and he's a strong footballer, a dedicated player who is ready to work day and night.
"He has the talent to be a good player. I don't think it will have killed him [to replace him], but I did not sub him because I wanted to save my offensive options.
"It gives him time to recover, but we wanted to win the game. He recovered quite well in the second half."
Wenger has long promoted an ethos of passing football, but he went on to suggest his players can be a little too committed to playing the ball out from defence, and argued that a more direct approach should not always been viewed negatively.
"We want to play out from the back, so the players go into the game and do that," he added. "Once they lose the ball, they think they have to continue to play out from the back.
"The more experienced players maybe should have said; 'You can see that he is having trouble. Let's push forward, so he can kick the ball into the opponent's half, and play off [Olivier] Giroud.'
"That is what I told them to do. By the time they realised that on the pitch we were already in trouble -- it was unbelievable on the night that the game finished 0-0."
Wenger's side have been struggling for goals in the opening few weeks of the new season, with their only two goals of the Premier League campaign so far coming in the 2-1 win at Crystal Palace earlier this month.