Making a case for Oxlade-Chamberlain to play against Stoke City

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

As the latest England squad for the friendly against Denmark was announced, there was plenty of the usual uproar amongst fans about the inclusion and the omission of certain players. But as I trawled through countless tweets on the subject, not one person mentioned the return young Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to the fold after the serious knee injury which ruled him out for the majority of the first half of the season.

It is testament to the 20-year-old’s ability that no one could possibly question whether he should have been included in Roy Hodgson’s 30-man squad despite being injured for such a long period of time. In all honesty, Oxlade-Chamberlain is a shoe-in to be on the plane to Brazil unless he picks up another unwanted injury problem in the closing stages of this season. In the meantime, he needs to secure himself a regular berth in Arsenal’s team.

He was left as an unused for the 4-1 win over Sunderland last weekend as Arsene Wenger wisely nurses him back to full fitness at his own pace. What this means is that Oxlade-Chamberlain will surely return to the Arsenal team in the tricky looking away game against Stoke City at the weekend. You get the feeling his pace on the counter attack, directness, willingness to run in behind the opponents’ backline will be much needed at the Britannia on Saturday.

His return to the side might coincide with the return of a certain Mesut Ozil, who loves to play through balls in-between the oppositions centre-back and full-back to find a rapid winger like Oxlade-Chamberlain. It is a real shame for Ozil that Lukas Podolski, Theo Walcott and Oxlade-Chamberlain have all been injured for large segments of the season as the German operates much more smoothly with direct wingers in the side as opposed to inverted play-makers.

Comparison with team mates

To give a statistic, Oxlade-Chamberlain has appeared just seven times in the league whilst Walcott appeared just 13 times before a knee injury ended his season prematurely and Podolski has made just nine appearances. Ozil and Oxlade-Chamberlain showed glimpses of a developing understanding in the F.A Cup victory over Liverpool a couple of weeks ago and there seems no reason for Wenger to not pick them both again on Saturday.

Chamberlain hasn’t had many opportunities as a starter for Arsenal this season

But it’s not just Ozil that Oxlade-Chamberlain’s presence in the team benefits. He offers something completely different to any other available option. Although he showed off his versatility by taking the role of match-winner in a central midfield role against Crystal Palace, he is a natural winger and therefore provides natural width, something which most of the other options currently available at Arsenal don’t offer. This is definitely something which they can utilise against Stoke because their full-backs aren’t the most mobile in the Premier League.

The Gunners may have been drubbed 5-1 by Liverpool earlier this month, but Oxlade-Chamberlain’s Heat Map from the defeat shows off what a great asset he is to this Arsenal side. He was their only real bright spark in that game, winning four take-ons and offering himself as a constant outlet on the right-hand side of midfield.

No offence to Stoke, but they aren’t on Liverpool’s level in terms of ability so it seems the perfect stage for Oxlade-Chamberlain to show us all why he has cemented himself as a certainty to make it to the World Cup. He knows exactly the right time to run into the channels and can beat the offside trap at will so once he gets in behind the relatively slow Stoke backline there will be no catching him.