Arsenal fans need to be patient with Oxlade-Chamberlain

Chamberlain shouldn’t be judged on his performance against Hull City by SE

Ozil was out injured, and will be out for a long time. Walcott isn’t fit enough to return to first team action just yet. Subsequently, there was no doubt that Alex Oxlade Chamberlain would find himself in Arsenal’s starting XI against Hull City, as the Englishman would have wanted to harness the game time he gets and rubberstamp a place for him in the Gunners’ first-choice XI, while the big names are out. However, very un-Chamberlain like, during a season which has already been a good one for him, he mustered a below-average performance, and failed to do himself and Arsenal any good. Looking ahead, though, inferences shouldn’t be drawn on the Englishman’s performance against Hull City.

Sometimes, as a fringe player (Chamberlain has started only 4 of the 8 games in the Premier League), it’s easy to dish out top-drawer performances when you are asked to do a cameo role for the team, and very least is expected of you. And, in many ways, Chamberlain had a very ordinary game against the Tigers, at a time when he was expected to perform and produce his very best for Arsenal whose squad is chock-a-block with long term injury absentees. With no disrespect to Chamberlain, he has been in and out of the Arsenal side and, when the big names are fit and ready to play, it’s very tough for the 21-year old to get starting berths in what is a decent Arsenal squad, embellished by names like Ozil, Walcott, Sanchez and Ramsey. So, maybe, the Englishman was trying harder than necessary to impress and prove a point, which could well have been his undoing.

On Saturday, albeit he had a spring in his step, as always, Chamberlain lacked a bit of composure and failed to raise his game when Arsenal as a team were feeling the pinch, and badly wanted someone to come up with the conjuring act. From a statistical point of view, Chamberlain managed to complete only 72% of his passes on the evening, and none of his 4 attempts on goal were hitting the target — which demonstrates the kind of game Chamberlain had against Hull City.

Chamberlain, introspectively, would have known that he had a poor game, and when you’re looking to earn a permanent spot in Arsene Wenger’s first-choice XI, you wouldn’t help yourself with such performances. However, from Arsenal and Wenger’s point-of-view, it would be harsh to judge Chamberlain on the basis of his performance on Saturday, alone. Instead, the Englishman should be given more opportunities to prove his quality as an Arsenal first teamer.

Tags Chamberlain Hull Oxlade

23 Comments

  1. Say what you like, I’m a massive fan of the Ox! Granted, he doesn’t always have the perfect game when he plays the full 90′, but whenever he comes off the bench, he always gives us a bit of a lift with his energy, which tends to rub off on other players. I also like the fact that he isn’t scared to take a shot from outside the box. We can’t walk it in every time!

    1. Wenger has lost it, he should bow out =>Thumbs up

      Wenger is still good, let him stay => Thumbs down

  2. No one needs to tell the Gooners to be patient, they have been patient for 10 seasons of absolute humiliation on the football side. All player experiments have been given a chance in that time. Young player philosophy, small tiki taka player experiments have been backed, basically every the Gooners have been and still are patient with our young players right now even though they all seem to not have improved that much. Theo and Ramsey the only ones that improved to a a somewhat acceptable level. The rest are up and down depending on lack.

  3. It’s surprisingly daft to hear you or Wilshire condemning Ox to the bench. Lets pull out the states sheet for the two. CHAMBERLAIN:In a 4-2-3-1 formation) which suits Arsenal with the kind of players they have) Chamberlain is phenomenal on the ball on the wings. He is speedy, direct, takes on defenders, good crosses, tracks back to defend, and can shoot from any distance or angle. Yeah players loose and pick up form due to differing reasons that’s why he should start some games and others should start on the bench.
    WILSHIRE: Great ball control & runs at opposition but….. poor end product for a no.10. Can’t take spot kicks, can’t score with his head, doesn’t have a killer final pass, can’t shoot to score outside the 18yard box. This mean apart from those mazey runs, Jack is no threat to opposing teams. Starting him without helping him add these missing qualities to his game is waiting for an injury to happen which will derail his development. With his type of game Jack should be a good impact sub period. Don’t risk that lad’s career by over hyping him, he needs an honest coach and fans. Ramsey was like that until he added a bit of these qualities.

    1. Which of our midfielders does have good headering abilities? Cazorla? Ozil? Ramsey? Don’t make me laugh. The problem in our squad and I wrote an article about it before is that we have too many small statured players which limits us quite a bit, especially in the air. I agree with you that Jack does not shoot enough, but I strongly disagree about him not having a final killer pass. I have seen him on numerous occasions for club and country threading through some delicious final passes to strikers. Jack’s style of play goes for and against him. He loves running at defenders and trying a quick one two. If it works, it normally leads to a decent chance and even goals. But the returns on that type of play are quite diminishing and he often loses possession. Quite frankly it is the only type of strategy, (next to using our strikers on a counter) that we can use to actually try and score goals as playing wide and crossing without Giroud is a waste of time. Arsenal tend to pass pass pass around the box and never get anywhere, where as with Jack he brings something different to the table as he tries to penetrate at their heart instead of us just passing the ball around the box with no threat.

    2. Sorry but I don’t see those ‘mazey runs’ you talk about Jack making.
      i see him picking up the ball in free space or level with a player and running with it, the player beside him really doesn’t worry too much because he can see a wall of his own defenders ahead and he knows that like a moth to a flame jack will run smack into them.

      Our team, even when all are fit, has glaring deficiencies and I am not just talking about the obvious DM and Defender to replace Arteta and Mert, I mean small players, physically light, can’t head the ball, not allowed to shoot, not allowed to serve long balls, perennially injured.

      Wenger has a lot of players that wouldn’t have a hope in hell’s chance of starting in a top 4 team and very little chance of starting in a top 7 team.

      Too many ‘young’ players who are always going to have a breakthrough season.
      Fergie, Mourihno or Pellegrini wouldn’t dream of having them in their team, why do we have to make do???

  4. I am patient with the Ox, I infact blame Wenger for his under development!!!

    Is there any young player Wenger has nurtured and helped progress in the last five years??

    Ox, Wilshere, Gnabry, Rio, Jenki, Martinez, are making extremely slow progress. Two made good progress i.e Campbell and Ramsey. But now one of them is a warming the bench consistently and the other is played in a formation that kills his game 🙁 🙁 🙁

    Other youngsters like Bale, Januzaj, Gotze etc become better and better while ours stagnate 🙁 🙁 Just wait and hope Chambers and Bellerin carrers are not ruined by injuries or just start stagnating 🙁 🙁

  5. I will definitely be patient with him.
    C’mon! He just had a bad game against Hull!
    Remember his assist for Welbeck against Gala? The way he destroyed that right side of their defense? Remember his sweet goal against Spuds?
    Yes, he hasn’t been 100 percent
    consistent so far. But there is still a long way to go in the season!

  6. How many bad games did Giroud have? INNUMERABLE!!! Yet he started and finished almost every game.

    Have you all forgoTten how bad Theo once was? He was so bad that lots of us (fans) were calling for him to be dropped and replaced by the Ox. Yet Wenger never dropped him from the first team and he was hardly substituted
    in every game, even when his performance was horrible
    .

    Chamberlain hasn’t been a regular starter, but so far he’s done well. He’s just had very few bad moments on the pitch but it’s obvious he’s striving to do his best and become a better player. For a player hiis age, I personally think he’s not been really bad, and if he must improving, he just has to play regularly.

  7. And regarding Wilshere’s comparison of Ox-Theo;
    They are both pacy, but uniquely different in their style.
    We have got only 2 direct dribblers (3, if u add Campbell) in the team. The Ox is one of them. He prefers the ball to his feet so he can dribble with it.
    On the other hand, TH14’s style is to run into balls played in behind. And he will do that over and over again without stopping. So if you’re a midfielder, 50% of your passes in behind might not make it. But you can be sure that a player like TH14 will always be avialable to collect the other 50% that makes it into the box. I agree with Wilshere that Theo is a dream for midfielders.
    The likes of Sanchez and Ox are dream players for strikers like Welbeck and Theo.

    1. In actual fact I still think Fellaini is good player if used correctly. United have not been using him to his strengths and this was even mentioned by one or two of his international team mates. Remember how good he was for Everton? I don’t believe a player just loses that skill when joining a new club. He would be great for us as he has height and strength, attributes which our entire midfield, par Diaby, lacks. I’m not saying he should be our first choice DM, but perhaps as backup to someone like Lars Bender or Schneiderlin would be good business.

  8. Group 1
    Older never quite made it big at club level
    Giroud Mertz Koz Cazorla Podolski Arteta
    Debuchi Flamini Rosicky Monreal Diaby .
    Group 2
    Younger tipped for stardom but stalling two levels below the top.
    Szc, Ospina, Bellerin, Chambers, Gibbs,
    Ramsey, Wilshere, Chamberlain,
    Walcott Wellbeck Sanogo Campbell
    Zelalem Gnabry Coquelin Ryo Martinez
    Group 3
    Have actually been at the top club level.
    Ozil and Alexis.
    Overall this posse of could be’s or could have beens
    remain in almost permanent “development” mode
    i.e. one good game, two average, one bad then weeks out injured.
    Patience and a tiger for punishment is the Arsenal supporters lot.

  9. Ox,Walcott and bale left Soton at the same stage of their career.Bale has exploded really.Walcott and Ox are developing at sub snail pace..Do you realize what the last 2 have in common?

  10. I’m going to go off topic for a while here. I believe this is the first time wenger will tell us to expect a player back in”3 weeks” and the player will be back (or even before that time)
    I believe Forsythe is doing his job well. Most of the injuries we accumulate comes from the pitch. Monreal and Ramsey were supposed to be out for 4 weeks…they are actually a week ahead of schedule. Giroud is “recuperating well”… Wenger said Ozil is not out for 12 weeks but he can envisage “6-8 weeks”… Diaby is still uninjured.

    Its still early to judge but I believe Shad Forsythe will come clean at Arsenal…

    1. Whenever I post offtopic comments they miraculously disappear 🙁 you are lucky

  11. When an agent openly says he’ll meet with a club like Arsenal 4 Brozovic it’s usually a strategy to attract interest in his client would rather prefer draxler than this kid , draxler will easily fit in our squad

  12. Greek media claim Arsenal never bid more than £7.5m for Manolas even though Olympiakos said they wouldn’t discuss selling for less than £12m

    running out of patience for wenger though how long does this has 2 go how long do the fans have take this crap

  13. Diaby is an excuse.
    Diaby will be used as an excuse in January and we all know that.
    Apparently, according to the “deluded one”, he is amazing in training (which player is not?), but still not ready to compete.

    I have been watching football for quite a long time and I know prospect, style and perception have changed with modernity, but Arsenal is a special case.
    Number of injuries, the purposely lack of ambition, the ticket prices, the “invisible” chairman, the “In Wenger we trust” deluded fans, the arrogant and stubborn manager and insignificant activity on the transfer windows…!!

    People will obviously remember Wenger 17 years in the row (we were robbed in 2006) in the CL, but with no clear chance to even win it…!!
    Since then we have also become Chelsea, Man United, Man City and sometimes Liverpool regular b*tches…!!

    I truly believe that Jurgen Klopp reign in Dortmund is coming to an end and he has done what he could (results have been mixed there and shows the end of an era) and he would be the perfect replacement. He would not take sh*t from the board and not associate himself with those cronies. He is a football man and will want to excel.

  14. @leo, what has that greek media got to do with the topic been discussed?are you saying they were actually with such a news when most of the ones you put up here is false? Admin should do something about commenters going off topic only to repeat what they said in previous articles. This topic doesnt demand you go to google before you can post relevant comment which baffles me when gooners go off topic. Re-ox: i dont think any fan is pressurising him and if you think some are actually doing it base on justarsenal users then you are sitting on a long thing.

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