Arsenal prodigy reveals how a roasting from England star helped him become a Premier League player
Rob Holding says that getting skinned by Stewart Downing on his debut was the making of him
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ROB HOLDING has revealed how a roasting from Stewart Downing helped him to land a Premier League move.
The 21-year-old has made six appearances for Arsenal since joining the club last summer.
Arsene Wenger snapped up the highly-rated youngster from Bolton following the Trotters’ relegation from the Championship.
But a 3-0 tonking by Middlesbrough, and especially their former England winger, led to a baptism of fire for Holding on his debut.
And it was an afternoon that was the making of him.
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"I remember my Championship debut," Holding told Arsenal's club website.
"It was against Middlesbrough, and they were favourites to go up and it was the first game at the Riverside.
"We got battered 3-0, we played three at the back and I remember Stewart Downing just ripped me apart.
"I learned from it and built on it through the season."
Although the centre-half recovered from that drubbing, Bolton never as they were relegated in May.
However, Holding was about to embark on a brand new adventure at the Emirates.
And the England Under-21s star revealed how a Three Lions colleague helped him to choose the Gunners.
Holding added: "I’d seen everything – it was all paper talk. There were people with things on Twitter saying, 'He’s linked here, he’s linked there,' but I think the concrete one that I knew, that my agent told me, was that Arsenal were interested.
"I was like, 'wow, Arsenal are interested in me,' so that was one that I wanted to push forward.
"Then when I went away with England in the summer to Toulon, I spoke to Calum Chambers and he said Arsenal is a great club – 'if it happens for you, it would be great to have you there.'"
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