From a personal perspective, it’s a bitter blow. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is now almost two seasons removed from his debut at Arsenal where he made such an impression against Manchester United and AC Milan. For Arsenal, it’s another setback in their quest for honours at the end of the season.
This was predicted to be a big season for Oxlade-Chamberlain, his breakout following a predominantly uneventful sophomore campaign in north London. At 20 years of age, he’s already made a mark in the Premier League, been capped on multiple occasions for England, and scored against Brazil in the Maracana. But those accomplishments offer little comfort when injury hits. At this stage, the youngster’s World Cup hopes are in jeopardy, and like his fellow Arsenal teammates, he’s looking to trace the same difficult steps that many of them faced during their development at the club.
It’s a disappointment for Arsene Wenger, of course. The interest was clear when Oxlade-Chamberlain was at Southampton, but shelling out close to £15 million for an untested teenager shows how highly Wenger rated him. There is still time to find a steady course for the midfielder’s development; there’s absolutely nothing, as it stands, preventing him from becoming one of Arsenal and England’s most important players over the next decade. But if Arsenal needed reinforcements in the New Year, Oxlade-Chamberlain’s injury setback mean it’s vital new faces are brought in via the market.
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The trip to Manchester United before the international break was the biggest indicator that many of the key players in the Arsenal team are running on empty. Olivier Giroud is the biggest concern, but due to injuries, the squad lacks pace and variation. Besides Aaron Ramsey’s contribution, goals from midfield is a concern. Arsenal are already making do without two proven goal scorers in Theo Walcott and Lukas Poldolski, and Oxlade-Chamberlain’s versatility is also sorely missed.
This squad is not far from being the complete package, but such is the delicate nature of it at present that the good work put in thus far into the season could be for nothing if lessons aren’t learnt from previous campaigns.
The similarities to the 2007-8 season are obvious. Prior to the start of that season, it was also expected that Arsenal would finish outside of the top four due to the departure of Thierry Henry – though many in the media has wrongly predicted that outcome prior to the start of every season, so it doesn’t really say too much.
But the squad and the mentality of the squad is notably similar. The players, namely the younger stars, have been released from the duty of working for one star player. Where it was Thierry Henry in the past, now the absence of Robin van Persie has allowed others to flourish. Notably, last season for Arsenal could have been seen as write-off due to the uncertain nature of the club as a whole. Based on what we’re seeing now, though, in hindsight it looks more like a “bridge season” for those who were new to English football.
But there’s a unity and a desire to win. Importantly there is also a belief, as if the players are determined to defy those who wrote them off. But Wenger needs to do his part too. So far, he’s extracted an awful lot out of Giroud, Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny in particular, with Ramsey also being among the names who have hardly been out of the team or put a foot wrong. The players need an extra lift and something to refuel the engines for the final stretch of the season.
The lack of activity in January 2008 played a part in Arsenal’s downfall, though no one could have foreseen the horror injury suffered by Eduardo, as well as the loss of key players like Mathieu Flamini and Bacary Sagna towards the end of the campaign.
There is no reason Arsenal shouldn’t be in the market this time around. The funds are clearly there, while Wenger himself understands the importance of another forward, as told by his pursuit of Demba Ba on deadline day in the summer.
Those who are out for the long term – Walcott, Podolski and Oxlade-Chamberlain – will come back and offer a lot to this team. But stepping away from the cliché is vital: these players are not like “new signings.” Further additions are needed. It helps to keep players fresh physically, but there’s no substitute for the mental boost a new face can offer in a season as important as this.
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