Arsenal: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain Working To Never Be Out Of Position

There aren’t always a lot of positives to take away from a defeat, but despite the consequences of the loss to Spuds, it wasn’t devoid of glimmers.

The game sucked, we can all acknowledge that. The team as a unit failed and that is all that mattered. But there are still talking points to consider as Arsenal look to move forward and another interesting one was raised in the course of this North London Derby.

At some point, one of the announcers noted that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was out of position at right wing back. He questioned his defensive ability and noted that he was an attacking player.

He did quickly heap praise on Oxlade-Chamberlain for his surprising defensive solidity in and around the box, but the question of whether he was still out of position never came up. Even despite how he blocked several dangerous balls into the box and won more tackles than Gabriel and Laurent Koscielny combined.

And that’s when it occurred to me that Oxlade-Chamberlain may damn well never be out of position.

At this point in his career, he has come so far and developed such a diverse array of skills, that it takes him next to no time to pick up a new position and thrive in it.

It all started at his first out-of-position position – right wing. That’s where he got his Gunner start and that is where he began showing us how talented he was. It took him some time to work on his on-the-ball abilities in close quarters, but that has obviously improved.

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Then he went to his actual position, central midfield, and displayed early signs of being “out of position” before acclimating there as well, as if he knew the position his whole life (which he probably did).

Now, at right wing back, he has acclimated even quicker than at the other positions. That first match of the 3-4-3, he started off incredibly skeptically, defending poorly, but by the end of the match, he was a top performer. It has been strictly improvements since then, with the culmination coming in the horrid loss to Spurs.

While his offensive abilities were limited due partially to the Spurs overloading that side of the pitch, defensive, Oxlade-Chamberlain showed that he was right on par with the rest. Had you said early on in the 3-4-3 that Oxlade-Chamberlain would have to rely on his defense to make an impact, it would have sounded like a terrible idea, but against Spurs, a team that flattened us yet again, Oxade-Chamberlain was far from guilty.

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He held his own. Which just goes to show that this young man may truly never be out of position. Because that infers that there is a weakness and he irons out weaknesses too quickly to be a liability.