When Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain arrived from Southampton as an 18 year-old prodigy, he was nick-named “the new Theo Walcott” and it was hoped that he would follow Theo’s progression from the Saints to the England national team.
Unhappily enough Walcott’s career never reached the expected heights, and poor old Alex has emulated his lack of success so far, and is lacking the confidence to secure a regular first team slot. This has led the Englishman to think about whether he should be leaving the Emirates to get more regular playing time.
Although Arsene Wenger is denying he meant that at all. “He didn’t say that,” Le Prof said. “He said he will consider the situation at the end of the season. That is completely different.
“I think his place is here. We like him. I personally rate him as a player.
“I can understand, but on the other hand, you buy a young player at 17 years of age, you spend a lot of money, then you would like him to stay at the club.
“I think his place is here. We like him. I personally rate him as a player and I hope that he will show that he can have a stable position in the team until the end of the season.
“This season he has been similar to Walcott. He has not got rewarded yet. But he is in a similar position because he has worked really hard.”
Again the comparison with Walcott but this season Theo has finally shown his worth, and as someone pointed out; Theo has 7 goals this season, whereas The Ox has only scored 8 in his whole career at Arsenal.
The Ox may have worked as hard as Walcott in pre-season, but he has not come up with the end result. I understand that Arsenal have invested a lot of money in Chamberlain over the years but are we just throwing good money after bad?
Should this be the last season we give the Ox a chance or, like Theo, should we keep him in the hope he willcome good one day?
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Oxlade doesn’t look like he’s close to taking Walcotts place. If he’s gonna take someone’s it’s most likely Iwobi’s. Iwobi is even worse defensively than the Ox, what’s keeping him in the team is his pass exchanging with Ozil and others. He keeps the ball rolling and makes a nice pass now and again. Oxlade, if he were to really step up his game the way Walcott did then he’d have every chance of earning a spot. He has a better chance this season than he had last one, Alexis was left, and he had two players ahead of him on the right. If he gets the basics right, like Theo is doing, put an effort in denying the opposition time and space whilst helping your fullback. If he does that and then tries to find space for shooting passing dribbling, to a decent standard, then he can overtake Iwobi.
The ox’s problem is that he I’d not a goalscorer, he is also not that much of a chance creator as he holds the ball too long. Defensively he is too much of a liability to ay in central midfield..
I think he needs to do a “walcott” and re-evaluate, exactly what his position is. He is still only 23, so has to.e on his side. If I was him I would ask for a few games in the u23 side in a position that he and his coaches feel he would excel. I would look at the EFL cup to really make some progress and then if in January he is still not satisfied I would ask wenger to let him have a loan spell to really prove his worth, but make it clear to the loan club, it is for regular game time, in the required position with a recall option, after a certain period.
The problem is Ox rarely plays to his potential. If he would start to perform he would get the chance he wants. Look at Iwobi, who would have thought that he would start so many games? He plays well whenever he plays so Wenger has no reason to deop him. If Ox played well he would start games too but he’s too inconsistent. At which other top club would he start honestly? He needs to up his game then he will get his chance.
I’d make him play left back in training and start him against Messi, if he survives it, a new star is born, that boy’s got something special in him but needs to be thrown in on the deep end to unleash the beast in him, he needs to be put under the spotlight in games and not allowed to hide.
He is still young at 23 and has a wide room to be improved. I hope he will get improvement in the near future and show us his capacity. Loan is an option for him to get enough game time. Otherwise…
chamberlain chamberlain…someone said he has just 8 goals in his arsenal’s career…hmmm…how many goals did he then score in his first season then….my light bulb is thinking up to 11goals
Ox’s season would have made a 180 had Walcott buried those two tap-ins that Ox set him up perfectly for against Swansea!
Bit of a harsh headline and analysis Admin imho.
He never moaned just gave his honest opinion of how he needs to have a good think at the end of the season. Ok he has not lived up to the hype but then again I don’t think he has been given much of a chance. A little similar to Gnabry.