The Ox

How good is this kid going to be? Gets his first prem start against the Champions and plays his heart out. Gets a great assist. Works hard all up and down the flanks. A pity Wenger took him off as he was obviously up for it. Fuck Arshavin.

He is in a better form than Walcott, he has to start now, he is ready!

He should start the games from now on.

I also think it says something about how good he is when you look at RvP's reaction to him being subbed.

Looks an amazing prospect. I remember Wenger in an interview saying 'I signed Chamberlain, he will be a great player'.... I wonder for which club though.

I can't blame Arshavin for today, we all know what he is. Wenger is to blame for the whole thing.

walcott should now be sent to the bench OX should be a starter

khezar wrote:walcott should now be sent to the bench OX should be a starter

And who will play wide until Gervinho gets back?

At the very least he should be starting every game that Gervinho is away.

At the very least he should be starting every game that Gervinho is away.

agreed!

So now we got Oxo along with wilshere in the bowl of legends in the making... If we can hold onto them. Fiver on City coming in for wilshere and Oxo in a couple of seasons when barry and co turn shit.

Anybody have a link to a video of RvP's reaction? Was watching and skyping at that point so I missed out on that bit....

I can see why most of the Arsenal fans want to see him play regularly. He is like a breath of fresh air. For an 18 year old kid he is phenomenal. You get the same vibe with him as you got when Wilshere exploded into the scene. His awareness and his passing is crisp and we will see him play centrally in a few years. But he still has qualities that a wide player should possess, decent pace and ability to take on defenders and beat them.

Great performance and shouldn't have been subbed unless he was suffering from something we don't know about. Looking forward to seeing his growth with us. Hope arsene keeps starting him.

Arsene says he was fatigued. It was precautionary I guess, I don't think Arsene believed Arashavin has more to offer to the game.

The kid is barely 18. Subbing him off in his first major PL game at that stage is not whacked. It makes proper sense.

Wenger mentioned his calf in a post match interview as well so there were reasons, Ox was very promising today, I would really think he has done enough to make the 11 for next week.

eyal.peer wrote:Arsene says he was fatigued. It was precautionary I guess, I don't think Arsene believed Arashavin has more to offer to the game.

The kid is barely 18. Subbing him off in his first major PL game at that stage is not whacked. It makes proper sense.

Yeah, now that I've calmed down a bit, I can see the sense in Wenger's decision. It's just our luck that we didn't have anyone better than Arshavin to replace Chambo with. But for me, he's definitely earned a starting place until Gervinho returns.

Hisham El Mawan wrote:

eyal.peer wrote:Arsene says he was fatigued. It was precautionary I guess, I don't think Arsene believed Arashavin has more to offer to the game.

The kid is barely 18. Subbing him off in his first major PL game at that stage is not whacked. It makes proper sense.

Yeah, now that I've calmed down a bit, I can see the sense in Wenger's decision. It's just our luck that we didn't have anyone better than Arshavin to replace Chambo with. But for me, he's definitely earned a starting place until Gervinho returns.

Benayoun?

Walcott should have been replaced by Park

Boss was right to give Arshavin a chance. Who knew he wouldn't step up.

You guys are pissed off at Arshavin ... i am more pissed off at Walcott & Ramsey. They were garbage the whole game. Walcott just kept giving the ball away time and time again. He didn't know how to dribble or cross. Completely out of ideas

Ox should start more. He looks very promising.

if he was fatigued (he didn't look it!!!) i still think it was a weak excuse, its not like we have a crazy period of fixture congestion atm so he'll have plenty of time to rest!!

crazy decision in my eyes, but that's my opinion you don't have to agree

I have never seen such anger from Arsenal Blogs and fans directed at Arsene Wenger before (although he has made bad substitutions for years!).

Few people can understand why he replaced Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain with Andrei Arshavin yesterday, which could be directly surmised as the reason why Arsenal lost the game, but the youngster himself still supports Wenger’s decision.

“It’s the boss’ decision at the end of the day,” Oxlade-Chamberlain said. “He is the boss and he’s a top quality manager, you’ve seen how many years he’s been at Arsenal and all the great decisions he’s made, so whatever the decision is I will respect him.

“It’s always nice when the fans are on your side, you’ve just got to keep going out there each week and try to please them and do as well as you can for the team and the manager.”

Despite Arsenal losing their third game in row, Oxlade-Chamberlain issued a rallying call and says the team can learn from these errors: “We go out to win every game.” he said. “So when we don’t it’s obviously a blow to the team but all we can do is keep coming back and try and push on from disappointing results like this. I think it can only make us stronger.

“We’ve got to learn some lessons from the mistakes that we make but that’s all part of making a good team.

“There is always confidence. This is Arsenal football club. We’ve got some absolutely top quality players who are capable of all sorts of things.

“I think we just need to stick together as a team now and come out of this sticky patch and come out of it better.”

Very wise words from the 18 year-old and his loyalty to Wenger should be commended, but the fact is that it will be some time before the Arsenal fans will forgive the manager for yesterday’s mistake….

http://thearsenalblog.com/oxlade-chamberlain-defends-wengers-decision-making/824

Hopefully backing the Boss will get him even more minutes! If there isn't a stupid amount of hype built up around the Ox, like there was with Theo, and Wenger let's him develop at a good pace this kid can be brilliant. He has nearly always impressed when played for the first team and a couple times last night he made Evra, a knob but a very very good leftback, look like a clown. I hope he gives Walcott and Gervinho a kick up the ass which they need, more so Walcott.

Agreed Mike - you can tell Chambo is a natural footballer. He just looks so comfortable and confident, even as an 18 year old with almost no premier league experience.

If you look at the past Arshavin has actually been a very effective sub in the big games and Wenger probably hoped some of that old magic to rub off on the field yesterday. Unfortunately it all went wrong before Arshavin was even on.

Lets not build him up too much, eh? We've built up everyone from Walcott to Merida to Emmanuel-Thomas to Barazite to... to... the point is, lets give him the time and space to develop without the weight of expectation.

Frankly it's dangerous; Walcott and Arshavin are in poor form, and Gervinho wasn't too much better before he left. RVP is carrying the goalscoring burden of about 6 players on his shoulders (Walcott, Arshavin, Gervinho, Chamakh, Park, and Ramsey), and we're looking like not getting into the CL spots. We all need a savior, but is Ox ready for that? I don't think so. I would rather we went out and bought someone who could make an immediate impact, ala Gotze, Hazard, Podolski or other, rather than crush Ox under the weight of expectation.