Of the many Arsenal players that were given a chance to shine by Arsene Wenger in the Gunners’ fourth round EFL cup clash with Reading this week, quite a few did themselves and their chances of playing more often the power of good, including Lucas Perez, Carl Jenkinson and Rob Holding, but surely the biggest winner on the night was the scorer of both goals Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who is sure to get the Man of the Match award on Arsenal.com.
Arsene Wenger was clearly impressed by the England international’s performance and he spoke highly of him after the match, as an earlier post on Just Arsenal reported. The Ox also spoke himself and after firing the team into the next round of the cup, he is pushing for more first team action in the other competitions as well.
Chamberlain said, “Yeah, I hope so. Any game that I play in is an opportunity for me to show what I can do. And whether it’s the league, the Champions League, the League Cup or the FA Cup – it’s all important. First and foremost, it’s all game time and it’s good to get your confidence up and to try and play the way you want to play and it’s still a very good standard of football. Reading are a good team, so for me personally, any chance I get to play is an opportunity for me to show and hopefully that form will carry over into the league and be rewarded with more starts.”
The biggest problem he has in that respect is the strong competition in the squad for places, so who would drop out if the boss was to listen to his demands for more games? I would have to say that the favourite was young Alex Iwobi, especially after Wenger suggested that his best position was not out wide but in the number 10 role. He also spoke about the Nigerian’s need to improve his finishing while praising the Englishman for the same thing.
Chamberlain played in the middle against Reading but he usually plays on one of the flanks and the manager also said after the game that he and Theo Walcott can operate well together on either side, so is the Ox going to get his wish at the expense of Iwobi?
Bob.