Arsenal
Is This The Year Of The Ox?
By Matty Sadler
December 4 2016
Upon signing for Arsenal, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain quickly became one of my favourite players. He had a slightly unfair advantage because I always used to sign him for my Arsenal team on Football Manager 2011, but there’s more to it than that. He has pace and power in abundance, and for me, there are few more exciting sights in football than watching a direct, attacking winger terrorising a helpless full back.
Comedian Alan Davies, on his now far too infrequent “The Tuesday Club” podcast, spoke about how he had attended an event to commemorate The Invincibles, and Oxlade-Chamberlain had been the only one of our current players to attend. That may not seem like a particularly important detail, but I totally appreciated and respected that he really wanted to know exactly what it meant to play for the Arsenal. I also enjoy his “bromance” with Carl Jenkinson.
Now, here’s the thing; I am not an immature 11 year old or a slightly odd obsessive fan like that “carlamberlain” on Instagram. Just because I like a player, it doesn’t mean the player can do no wrong. It doesn’t mean that I have to ignore his negatives, defend his honour no matter what, berate anyone who dares to criticise him or automatically dislike any players who are a threat to his place in the team. Before the start of this season, I don’t think many would’ve argued if I’d said that Oxlade-Chamberlain had failed to deliver on his early promise.
“The Ox” was used sparingly at the beginning of his first season at Arsenal, 2011-12, but by the end of the season he had established himself as one of the most exciting young talents in England, if not the world. Unfortunately subsequent campaigns haven’t filled us with quite so much joy. For the purposes of this piece I have gone back through all of his previous seasons and looked at all of his “moments”, good and bad. I won’t bore you by listing them all here, but I can confirm it has been a mixed bag. Instead, I’ve picked out three “moments” that I believe most typify his Arsenal career to date;
3) After capping a promising pre-season by scoring the winner against Chelsea in the Charity Shield at the start of the 2015-16 season, he rather unrealistically targeted one “goal involvement” (goal or assist) per game. Nothing wrong with a bit of ambition, but he went on to finish the calendar year 2015
It has very much been a case of one step forward and two steps backwards. More specifically though, what have been the problems? Of course injuries have been the biggest stumbling block, as they seem to be for a lot of Arsenal players. Carelessness in possession, sloppy passing and overplaying it in dangerous areas have been some of the more common “football-specific” issues, not uncommon for young players, but Oxlade-Chamberlain was approaching 23 and not a kid anymore. The biggest football-specific issue for me, personally, has been the lack of consistent end product. Goals win games, and you can forgive other shortcomings if a player is getting regular goals and assists. He hasn't. Another injury in February ended his 2015-16 early, and for the first time there was genuine doubt and speculation surrounding his Arsenal future. It was not hard to see why. His contract runs out in June 2018 and despite being here for five seasons he was yet to establish himself as a regular starter. Joel Campbell didn’t get much of a chance that season but showed far superior vision and quality in the final third, while Alex Iwobi emerged as the new golden boy, with both bettering Oxlade-Chamberlain’s “goal involvement” total, despite playing considerably less.
Oxlade-Chamberlain looked very sharp this pre-season, but that wasn’t anything to get excited about as we have seen him look sharp in pre-season before. With Alexis upfront I felt Oxlade-Chamberlain may struggle. The Ox is very much a “traditional winger”, not a particularly prolific passer or “playmaker”. Many of his better moments have involved his low crosses to a forward (mostly Giroud, but Gervinho, Podolski and Welbeck have benefited as well). Alexis is far from a conventional “forward” and is often everywhere BUT the penalty area, making crossing ineffective at times. This turned out to be pretty accurate, as the Ox started the season as a backup player to Iwobi, with the youngster’s far superior use of the football better complimenting Alexis upfront and Walcott on the right. It was reported in September that we were stalling over a new deal, and in October Oxlade-Chamberlain himself spoke about possibly needing to leave the club for regular football. It felt like he was entering “last chance saloon”. Now or never time.
I have to say though Oxlade-Chamberlain’s response has been pretty promising. Ignoring his awful set piece delivery, I’m pleased to say I haven’t noticed him giving the ball away as much. With five goals (now six as written before West Ham away), this is already his best seasonal goal return and we’re only in December, but the goals are an added bonus and not what has really impressed me most. We’ve unfortunately become far too accustomed to Oxlade-Chamberlain’s wild, over hit crosses going into orbit. A Theo Walcott injury handed him a rare start against Sunderland in October, and he finished a 22-pass team move by floating in an excellent cross for Alexis to head home. Amazingly this was only the third time that an Arsenal player has scored a header from an Oxlade-Chamberlain cross. He proved it wasn’t a fluke two games later he came off the bench and hung up another excellent cross, this time for Giroud to head in a late equaliser against Man United. This meant that in just three appearances he had already doubled the “Arsenal player scoring a header from an Oxlade-Chamberlain cross” tally.
It hasn’t been perfect from him though. After his assist against Sunderland, he was actually pretty useless and missed two good chances, and in a recent game against Bournemouth he only created one chance in 75 minutes. Not perfect, but with 9 “goal involvements” (5 goals, 4 assists), he has already matched his best ever seasonal tally (2013-14), so already this is an improvement on last season. Touch wood, he appears to be having better luck with injury as well.
When Walcott was Oxlade-Chamberlain’s age, he stepped up with 21 goals and 16 assists, his best season to date. After a less than perfect November this team is in need of a lift. Can he be the man to do it? Iwobi’s loss of form and Alexis still being used upfront over Giroud has opened things up for him. He has been picked to start this evening against West Ham for the second league game in a row and has a huge opportunity to impress. With his contract up at the end of next season, surely he is playing for his future? End product is the name of the game.
So what say you all? Is he finally turning a corner, or is it too soon to tell? Can he follow in Walcott’s footsteps, or is this all a bit premature? Am I getting ahead of myself, or can 2016-17 be the Year of the Ox?
Originally posted on forum at 17:11 on 3 December 2016 here
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016:12:06:18:50:45 by Padre Pio.
I couldnt use original photos as I would get done for copyright
"When we had to suffer the team is a lion because they suffer together." 4 July 2020 at Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arteta on his team's first away victory at a club above them in the Premiership since September 2015 at Leicester.
still has to improve his timing. frankly I find it hard to access our players when Wenger king of creating imbalance all the time..
how can you really judge a player when all other odds are against them.
Can We Now Trust The Process ๐ค๐คท๐ฟโโ๏ธ or Should We Still Remain Cautious ๐๐ฟโโ๏ธ
"๐๐ณ ๐๐ผ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ณ๐ถ๐ฟ๐๐ ๐๐ผ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ณ๐ถ๐ฟ๐๐. ๐๐ณ ๐๐ผ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ป๐ฑ, ๐๐ผ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ป๐ผ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ป๐ด."
He is sharper due to his improved physical condition which saw him virtually covering every blade of grass, in contrast to Walcott (whose August/September form disappear as fast as summer sunlight) who was MIA.
Agreed, he is a traditional winger who can cross and pass accurately.
But he is not a creative playmaker like Ozil or Wilshere or Iwobi.
Or like Fabregas who can spot a passing channel a split second before his opponent can closed them down, and always thinking 1 or 2 or 3 steps ahead of his opponent, passing and moving.
With his new-found engine and fast improving tackling and defensive skills, he will make a superb wing-back like Victor Moses, Ashley Young and Valencia.
His dribbling skill will help to complement Ozil and Alexis in opening up tightly-knitted defences with 9 or 10 men in the box.
Accept OX as one of those old-fashioned winger who can dribble pass 2 or 3 men, can cross accurately from the flanks and can deliver a through ball too.
Playing with the back towards goal, closed control to protect the ball, develop telepathic understanding with team-mates, track the movement and preferences of team-mates, ... all these will develop with more playing time and years of experience.
First thing first.
OX needs to develop that self-confidence and belief in his talents that he can be as good as Alexis in finishing all the moves with goals. In fact, OX has an excellent shot like Walcott plus the skill to bend the ball like he did at London Stadium.
With both Walcott and Iwobi alarming drop in form, Ramsey reluctance to play at right flank, and Perez struggling to fit into the team, OX should seize this rare opportunity to start regularly with better and better performances than that at London Stadium.
"When we had to suffer the team is a lion because they suffer together." 4 July 2020 at Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arteta on his team's first away victory at a club above them in the Premiership since September 2015 at Leicester.
Quote:Padre Pio
After tonights display I would think not
I think his new girlfriend is a distraction to his game.
If OX is smart, he should leave in the summer to try out another manager who may develop him to his potential.
Arsene Wenger will not develop him with the same-old same-old when he is mentally fragile.
When the goings get tough, the ox just ambles away with his eyes fix on the turf ... always.
Theo was just a complete waste of time stepping out on the pitch.
"๐๐ณ ๐๐ผ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ณ๐ถ๐ฟ๐๐ ๐๐ผ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ณ๐ถ๐ฟ๐๐. ๐๐ณ ๐๐ผ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ป๐ฑ, ๐๐ผ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ป๐ผ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ป๐ด."
If Guardiola really bids for him, he should jump ship immediately to improve to at least to Sterling level.
Quote:Nikfonso
People are saying that he threw his shirt at the bench? Is this true?
There's a video of him throwing a paddy in the tunnel after going off injured.
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