A CASE FOR OXDALE CHAMBERLAIN AS THE STRIKER ARSENAL HAVE BEEN MISSING FOR YEARS! by NO
In the Arsenal pre-season, and with the big players of the squad missing due to their commitments to country through the Euro 2016 and COPA America Tournaments, a player whose injury kept him out of the tournaments is stepping to the plate. Ox Chamberlain is just 22. I had to remind you because I would not be surprised that you may be forgetting. The Ox has scored two spectacular goals in the pre-season and Arsenal fans must be worried that his performances are putting a cold ice into the deal that Arsenal have been looking forward to secure – That of Mahrez joining us from the EPL champions Leicester. But, I would like to give my thoughts on how the OX can be utilized by Arsenal this new season.
My thinking is that looking at the OX play, he has the potential to get a lot of goals in if he was closer to the opponent’s goal posts. He is showing awareness of scoring good goals that will only improve with time. The other thing is he like to dribble and dribblers are good around the 18-yard box, they bring about pandemonium that defenders find impossible to deal with and cause dangers that are quickly converted into goals or assists. The OX also likes to shoot and has been known to shoot on sight. But there is also another quality that he would bring in frontal attack – he is quick and will get behind defenses just out of sheer pace. The OX also has the body frame to hold his own in physical battles. He perhaps had issues with decision making last season but that should improve with time.
Arsenal’s best known project of wing to striker has just been handed bad news as the latest student of the project is being reported as failure (Walcott just has not managed to carry on the route that Thierry Henry and Robin Van Persie before him had taken to establish themselves as world class strikers).
Perhaps, it’s time to scrub off the latest version of this experiment, cut our loses and move on to the next student showing promise. With Walcott, we knew the pace was electric (Why didn’t we sell him to Barcelona when they sniffed around a few seasons back?) but that was about all he had going for him. The premier league defenders seems to have mastered this one dimensional capability and now know how to curtail him. With Ox-Chamberlain, you just know that beyond the pace, there is a football brain in their too and the player will throw in some surprises depending on needs for the moment in the match. His two goals in pre-season were clear manifestation of analysis of the situation and seizing the best possible tools within him to execute just the exact move necessary to get the goal scored. That’s what a good Thierry Henry had mastered. His goals were as diverse as the opportunities needed. The OX has the potential to deliver this same varieties of an end ball that will get many goals counted as goals rather than huge chances. It is this variety that the likes of Giroud, Walcott and even Welbeck are not being providers of.
So for the upcoming season, just go ahead and sign Lacazzete and Mahrez and let the OX be eased into the frontal attack. Get rid of Walcott and let him pick up his career elsewhere. In games that we are deadlocked or in games that we are far ahead in terms of goals he should be introduced as the alternative striker to get his tutelage under the belt. A player like Giroud will soon be leaving the hustle and bustle of the premier league due to age catching up with his feet and that would be a chance for the Ox to seize.
Can the OX be converted into the missing Arsenal striker of the near future?