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Arsenal does indeed have a minor crisis in the midfield, but Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain can take that crisis situation and turn it into pure gold.
The theme of my writing this week has been changes. We have called for changes at Arsenal before, but usually those changes are not available, or they make no practical sense. In the worst of cases, they may even involve relying on Arsene Wenger to buy someone.
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That is not the case when I preach about changes this time around. This time around, there are guys ready to cake on the first team responsibilities and who are absolutely capable of doing so.
After seeing the attack flail and die against Watford, the changes seemed written in stone – they had to come in the attack. Danny Welbeck and Lucas Perez are right there, ready to make something happen. They are two of Arsenal’s most sparsely used commodities and as they showed against Southampton, they can shake things up.
In the midfield, changes may not be so easy to come by, but by a stroke of good fortune, injuries have forced Arsene Wenger to do something he should have done long ago – start Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in the center of the pack.
The young Englishman has said that it is his preferred position and Wenger himself has admitted the same yet through the years, he has only been given maybe two or three chances (up until recently) at his preferred role. Each time he did rather well, but never well enough to sway Wenger’s mind.
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But due to the injury situation at Arsenal recently, which is apparently only afflicting midfielders, the Ox has had two opportunities in a row to prove his merit and he has proven what we should have already assumed – the role fits him.
He has the athleticism of Coquelin, the speed of Alexis and the offensive thrust of Santi Cazorla. With a little fine tuning and added maturity, he can turn this crisis situation into his permanent home.
And that would be a seriously nice consolation prize to take away from this meltdown. At long last, we could have a direction to apply the immense talent that the Ox has.
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Of course, this is all dependent on one major thing – Wenger ability to see the merit in such a move. It shouldn’t be too hard to grasp, especially if he goes out and has himself another game against Chelsea.