There are a few players who could have earned player of the week, which can only be good sign, right? Or, it means that we never buy anyone ever again. Cazorla’s thirty! And he was brilliant on Saturday celebrating his birthday in style… and finding the net, at last.
Honestly, I would’ve had no choice but to give player of the week to Ramsey for donning his super hero costume and destroying Galatasaray in their back yard. But he’s an Arsenal regular and that means he automatically picks up an injury when he’s doing well. We won’t see him until next year. How great is that? And in a dead-rubber game? On a more positive note, I want to mention quickly Arsenal’s fluid front line who were all excellent on the weekend, and I think we’ve found something there. Again, Alexis Sanchez dominated proceedings after his short rest, and Bellerin shows very promising signs after putting his Stoke nightmare behind him. But the player that’s caught the eye is Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
He started in both games during the week, filling the hole left by our injury crisis. It’s not a problem though, because midfield is inevitably where Chamberlain will end up, and rightly so. He can be sensational. I love him in our midfield, I think he’s better there, and when he’s on his game, he runs that midfield. He has the pace and power to devastate, and it works best when he’s running through the middle, rather than the wings, on the wings we can field player’s with more goal threat, freeing up Chamberlain to power through in the middle of the park. He’s strong and fast and sometimes that’s all you need in a midfield. He carries us up the pitch and he can shake of challenges and breeze past players, which our less physical midfielders lack and struggle to do. He adds dynamism in the middle and it’s a burst of fresh air to see a powerful runner in there rather than the usual tricky, tidy footballers. We have too many. And that’s why players like Chamberlain appear so devastating in our team. It’s what we severely lack, and when players like that are missing, that’s when we are ripped to shreds. It’s why we need a powerful defensive midfielder – a general. As a team, we are not physically stronger enough to cope with difficult games.
Outside of Ramsey, he was clearly the main man against Galatasaray; albeit, he wasn’t rewarded.  But it doesn’t matter because everything he touched that night turned to gold and he made things happen. That’s what Chamberlain is about, even if it doesn’t work out, he always forces the issue. He carries the ball and sometimes loses it; but he’ll try again and maybe he’ll succeed and before you know it we’re breaking with four against two. If there’s one thing that Chamberlain needs to work on it’s his decision making. And that comes with experience. Yes, he may have been around a while now, but in terms of regular game time, he’s still far behind the likes of Wilshere and Ramsey. That’s why this season is vital for him. Theo’s injured. He has the chance. He has to deliver for the rest of the year, and next year, because he can, and if he does then we have a really special player on our hands. Also, his single, truly outstanding game was in midfield when we faced Milan way back. He ran the show. He did the same thing against Bayern a season or so back. Keep him in the middle. Let him flourish.