The career of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain continues to develop very nicely as the teenager scored all of England Under-21′s three goals against Iceland last night.
I don’t suppose Iceland have the deepest footballing reserves but the skill and confidence displayed are welcome all the same. It will be interesting to see if he plays in the Norway game too and how well he does. Norway should be tougher opposition; like England they have won their opening games.
Three thoughts about Arsenal come out of this success. The first is just an observation that many Arsenal fans were up in arms when Chamberlain’s signing was announced this summer. ‘Not another untested teenager costing millions’ and ‘what on earth does Arsene Wenger think he’s playing at’ is a cleansed summary of most fans’ reaction.
I was slightly nervous, but not that bothered – as long as there were some defensive signings too. Which there were.
Now of course, everyone’s a Chamberlain fan and shouting about why oh why is he not playing every game when he could be single-handedly turning Arsenal’s season round?
Which brings us to the more important issues of how often should he play and where? His career is clearly developing fast and he is genuinely competing for a place on merit, not just as an opportunity to hone his skills.
He is just where Jack Wilshere was this time last year – only the pressure all round at Arsenal is much greater than it was a year ago because of our terrible start to the season.
I would like to see him get more starts, but let’s not forget where Jack Wilshere is one year on. He’s on the sofa with an injury that’s keeping him at for a minimum of half the season. He picked it up at the tail end of last season and played on through the summer. And we all wanted him to do it, and he wanted to do it, along with all England fans. Some wanted him to do even more.
So let’s see more of him, but maybe we shouldn’t get on Wenger’s case every time he doesn’t feature.
But when he does play, whose place is under threat? Arsene Wenger has talked about him being able to play right across midfield, though he generally seems to play out wide.
If he still has an obvious weakness it is a lack of tracking back to cover when we don’t have the ball. But sadly he’s not alone on that score. The most obvious role for him at the moment is where Theo Walcott plays. But I wonder whether he could also rotate in for Ramsey sometimes. I wouldn’t think you’d swap him for Arteta unless forced, as he surely needs to play alongside someone with more experience.
According to Arsene Wenger he could even play on the left. So maybe he’s a welcome spur to Arshavin as well. All-in-all, the speed of his development is great news for Arsenal. Let’s just remember he’s still a teenager and look after him.
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