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EFL Cup Could Be Pivotal for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s Arsenal Career
- Updated: October 24, 2016
The next round of the EFL Cup sees Arsenal meet Championship side Reading at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday. As ever, it will provide an ideal occasion for manager Arsene Wenger to rotate his squad, and thus a platform for players on the fringes of the setup to state their case for regular first-team involvement.
No-one will be more desperate to seize their opportunity than Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. In this most crucial of seasons for the English midfielder, he knows he must take every chance he gets.
The reason this season is particularly important for Oxlade-Chamberlain is that he is now into the final two years of his contract—a fact substantiated by Dave Kidd of the Mirror. Arsenal will presumably make a decision on whether or not to offer him an extension by next summer.
However, it’s not only “make your mind up time” for the club. Oxlade-Chamberlain also faces a decision as to whether he’d sign it. At the start of next season, he will be 24.
The fact that Oxlade-Chamberlain arrived at Arsenal as a callow youth means he is perennially perceived as a player of youthful promise. However, he is now approaching the prime years of his career. He needs to begin converting his potential into performances, and playing regular football.
It’s a fact not lost on Oxlade-Chamberlain, who would dearly love to succeed at Arsenal but is being forced to contemplate the possibility of moving elsewhere to facilitate his development.
Speaking to Sky Sports’ Goals on Sunday programme (h/t MailOnline), he said:
I’d be lying if I wasn’t going to sit here and say that it has crossed my mind that I need more game time. As a footballer, you want to play every game. Me being myself, I’m not happy when I’m not playing.
There is going to come a time in my career, and I think I’m approaching that, when I do need to be getting more regular football, but my focus completely and utterly now is on playing for Arsenal and still trying to break into the team when I get the opportunity. Help out if I have to come off the bench, do what I did yesterday and come on and make a difference.
My sole aim for now is to help Arsenal and keep pushing myself to play in this team, because you know, I love playing at …
