Arsenal: Hector Bellerin can help unlock Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain potential

Hector Bellerin excelled in the wing-back role in Arsenal’s win over Everton. By his performing, he can provide positional certainty for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, unlocking his potential.

The development of young players is dependent on many different factors. As a traditional master of this process, Arsene Wenger is acutely aware most of these influences, and has exploited them for the benefit of Arsenal football club throughout his tenure in North London.

One of those factors is positional certainty: being clear about your role, learning the nuances and the details, and becoming an expert in it. In recent years, there have been many players under Wenger’s tutelage that have lacked such certainty, and have, as such, failed to fulfil their potential.

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Theo Walcott, Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey, Danny Welbeck. The names run off the tongue. And the latest in the assembly line of underwhelming career development is Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. The central-midfielder-turned-winger-turned-central-midfielder-turned-wing-back has failed to forge a clear and well-defined starting role for himself in the side, instead, impressing for a brief run of games in a number of different roles before suffering an injury or positional change that scuppers any momentum he had built up.

The latest positional experiment that he has impressed in is as a wing back. It is far from his most natural position – Chamberlain lacks the natural defensive nous to ever be an upper echelon wing back. But given his unquestioned talent, in his physical blend of power and pace, his intelligence, on and off the ball, and his technical qualities, he nonetheless enjoyed great success in the role.

But that is not where he is best used. As proven in a short run earlier in the season, Chamberlain’s most-suited role is centrally, as a surging, driving, distributing box-to-box midfielder. And yet, Wenger seems unwilling to trust him in that role, preferring to play him out wide where, while still a threat, he is not at his absolute best. That is where Hector Bellerin enters the fray.

The Spaniard was back to his blistering best in the 3-1 win over Everton, relentlessly bombing up and down the flank, creating chances and even getting in the box to open the scoring with a smart, rebounded finish from Danny Welbeck’s fluffed shot.

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Oxlade-Chamberlain could be in line to return to the starting line-up for next weekend’s FA Cup final against Chelsea. Perhaps the re-emergence of Bellerin and his best form after a turbulent, inconsistent season could see Chamberlain’s potential truly unlocked.

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