Arsenal: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain Setting His Own Table

Arsenal winger Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has admitted some pretty big things about his progress as a player. But has he just set himself up?

The entire Arsenal world has been concerned with the seeming lack of development from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain over the past half decade. The young Englishman has shown so much potential and ability with his unique blend of strength and speed that stardom seemed unavoidable.

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However, at 23 years old, he is still stuck in that prospect phase where he can’t hold down a starting role despite glimpses of sheer genius. Seeking a window into what has held him up, we look at the comments he made on the team’s official website.

“I’m the type of person that tends to care a lot about what people are saying and what people are thinking,” he said. “I think as I’ve grown older I’ve learnt that you really can’t please everyone.”

He went on: “As I’ve got older, the pressure on myself and the expectations go up. You need to find a way to manage that the best for yourself and I’ll be honest, it’s not until recently, the last six months to a year or so, that I’ve fully got my head around how to go about that with dealing with people’s expectations on me and my own expectations.”

What we see here is a classic example of being unable to handle the initial wave of pressure that is attached with moving to a big club and showing a mass of potential. There is no shame in that. He’s done nothing wrong. That is certainly a lot to handle and we have seen many men quake and falter under such pressure.

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But the Ox gives us a positive indication that he may have turned the corner. In saying that he has finally come to terms with how to deal with the pressure, I think we can go forward with confidence and believe that the 23-year old has finally found the mental state to succeed. We have heard of late bloomers, ability-wise, but maybe Ox was just a late bloomer mentally.

Confidence plays such a huge part in a player’s ability to find consistency. That has always been the major question asked of Ox – does he have the confidence to make it?

The answer had unfortunately been ‘no’. He would juxtapose 80 minutes of blending in with 10 minutes of blinding creativity and innovation. Inspiring, but not starting XI material.

Words may not mean as much as actions, but it’s somewhere to start. Let’s see if Ox can take the pitch and show us that the pressure isn’t getting to him anymore. Or, at the very least, that it isn’t effecting his play anymore. At this juncture, most pressure should be off anyway.

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Yet, by telling us he can handle the pressure now, he has added more pressure to himself. It’s like he is setting his own table. Now he needs to be able to deliver upon those words and provide a meal.