Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain says Yaya Sanogo wouldn’t be at Arsenal if he wasn’t a ‘good talent’ and believes the Frenchman can build on the raw ability he demonstrated in the Emirates Cup.
Sanogo, 21, made 14 appearances in his first season at the Emirates including game time against Bayern Munich in the Champions League, a start against Liverpool in the FA Cup and two chaotic cameos at Wembley. He hasn’t though scored a competitive goal; a state of affairs that has led many to question the trust placed in him by Arsene Wenger.
Dismissing doubts about his teammate’s ability, Oxlade-Chamberlain noted that four goals in pre-season against Benfica hint at promise and progress.
“I think Yaya is a very good player,” the England international told the club’s pre-Besiktas press conference.
“He’s a young lad like myself and he’s got [progression to make] like I do.
“I think at the moment he’s shown his raw ability. In the Emirates Cup he scored four great goals and as a striker, especially last season, I think he got into some really good positions and it just didn’t fall for him in terms of scoring goals.
“He’s a really good lad as well. He works very hard on and off the pitch and I don’t think he would be at a club like Arsenal if he wasn’t a good talent. I’m sure the boss would tell you the same thing.”
Arsene Wenger refused to be drawn on whether Sanogo will start tomorrow’s night game with Besiktas, but the boss did touch on how his squad’s experience of big games might help them overcome their Turkish opponents.
“The experience plays a big part. We have big experience in the Champions League and we have big experience playing high pressure games, we can use that tomorrow.
“What is more important is the performance on the day. Do we turn up with a strong performance? I’m confident, this group is strong, is mentally prepared, has a great togetherness and is ready for the fight.
“At the end of the day that is the most important thing; that we go out tomorrow and play our best.”
i think that everything depends on what happens tomorrow night
win and do those ST.CDM,CB transfers
fail and just get Nastasic or any other 4th choice CB
Anhthing which makes squad better is welcome. Though i would prefer a loan for Sanogo
Could we see a 4-4-2 with Lukas Podolski and Sanogo up top?
i would rather see podolski and campbell
Without Ramsey, we dont have the midfield skills necessary to make a 4-4-2 work :\ Ramsey clones and Ox clones would perfect for the middle 4 in a 4-4-2 :\ Although I did thumb your comment up
We’ll go through tomorrow night. The pitch will be true, and the Arsenal have too much talent to fail to score. The major risk is an away goal (or two) but the major probability is that it’ll be us in the pot come Friday morning.
If we don’t then at least Wenger will have a good excuse.
on the other hand, MK Dons. bwahahahahahahahah
i think we can probably agree on that
If we spend the season with Sanogo up front we’ll be looking at a mid-table Spuds-like finish
Don’t be hater. Trust the guy that saw promise in Ramsey, Henry, RVP and countless other write-offs. I suspect that Sanogo will come good in a big way. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
I like Sanogo, but to be fair, Wenger always gives chances to young talented players which is not guarantee of success. It’s entirely up to Sanogo to make the most of it. He seems like the decent type with a good work ethic though. Like you said, hopefully sooner than later.
Sorry but while Yaya may come good in a few years we’ll be far out of the the race for fourth place if he’s left up front, that won’t help his confidence as we’d end up seeing the crowd booing him every shot h misses (my case in point is HFB)
“that won’t help his confidence as we’d end up seeing the crowd booing him every shot h misses”
So you’ll lament Sanogo’s inevitable dip in confidence because fans like you will boo him, resulting in a lack of confidence…?
Couldn’t you just… not…
Never mind.
“So you’ll lament Sanogo’s inevitable dip in confidence because fans like you will boo him, resulting in a lack of confidence…?”
I have never booed an arsenal player thanks, been to a match before?
How your comment got so many thumbs down I will never know. It is so … realistic and even obvious for me.
There’s a big Sanogo fan club on here…
I’m probably in the minority here but Yaya’s lack of goals thus far are not really a great concern. He’ll score goals once he gets a run of games. For me it’s more important that he sorts out his link play the way Giroud can. Sanogo needs to get the ball to stick and bring others into play and create chances for others as well as scoring his fair share of goals. It’s important that Walcott and Alexis for example provide the goals for the team along with the goals that Ramsey will get. I think the times where a… Read more »
I completely agree! People are saying: “Don’t play Sanogo, he hasn’t scored for us” How will he score if he doesn’t play? He gets into great positions, his movement is good, his hold up play is good and he is a good strong lad. With some game time the goals will come, the confidence will come and the understanding with his team mates will come. He needs some time to feel comfortable with the team, part of the team on the pitch. A lot of Arsenal supporters always seem to write of players because of what they haven’t seen yet… Read more »
I get it that he needs help support and encouragement, but can we afford to have him in the team when other teams have three quality strikers?
He needs a loan move.
We won’t be getting a new striker. At most we’ll be getting a CB who’ll come cheap. That’s it
Hmm looks like it
What are you both basing this on? Last I checked it was only 26th of August.
Wenger knows we’re short, especially at the back. And depending on Giroud’s problem he will decide whether we need another face up front or whether we change the system a bit to suit the players we have.
Either way, his only focus will be the match tomorrow night and rightly so. Can’t do anything bout the players available for Besiktas game now anyway. Qualify for the group stages and then worry about the transfer market.
I really hope Sanogo can step up and become the player we all want hime to be. With some composure and experience, I expecting him to get 10-15 league goals. That is if we do not sign another striker of course.
No Sanogo no party
The only thing we can do as fans is get behind him, I believe in Yaya!
I’m a big fan of his and think that he has the potential to be a much better striker than Giroud. Like you said, we need to support the guy.
In fairness to be at a club like Arsenal you don’t have to be a good player
Here’s looking at you Silvestre
He is better than kaba diawara im sure. He’ll come good.
Contrary to Arsecast on Friday, we don’t need anymore up and coming players. We have two of the best right now in Sanogo and Campbell. With Giroud out, we will need a player with experience and preferably with quality. IMO we should be looking at the Falcao bracket (which is basically just him) but we may likely face competition from RM now that they have sold Di Maria and they have deeper pockets than us. Not sure what the solution should be. Maybe a loan for Eto? OTOH, Wenger is likely still permutating whether Falcao would be left on the… Read more »
I keep reading that Eto’o is off to everton
What about Cavani? or Cerci?
Everyone would love Falcao but there’s no point in wasting your time fantasising about us paying 60 million or more for a player after already spending 30-35 on Sanchez this Summer and another 25-30 on Chambers, Debuchy & Ospina.
“Contrary to Arsecast on Friday, we don’t need anymore up and coming players.
We have two of the best right now in Sanogo and Campbell”
I’m just so f*cking tire reading or hearing that “Sanogo have great potential” or “Sanogo is one of the best young player around”. No goals in 14 games, no 1st touch, no dribbling, no shooting…shut up already all of you Sanogo believers. Time to ask more from your team
When did you learn the language of bollocks?
Yaya Samoregoals…
Yaya Sanogo… Jumps like a Pogo.
Lets be really honest here though. I’m not trying to be a hater. Steven jovetic. Sergio aguero. Edin dzeko. Vs yaya Sanogo. Joel Campbell. Olivier giroud. Enough said really.
Billionaire owner and a management team that doesn’t care about great talents rotting away in the stands vs sustainable club that treats their employees with some common decency (except for Park) and actually develops young players to make them better. Enough said really.
Great excuse…really brilliant. Mansour doesn’t care about his club yet he spends as much as he does to get the players he needs. City don’t treat their players “with some common decency” yet they get paid as much as they do. Pellegrini is such a horrible coach that cashri and dzeko have become better players since he arrived. Keep living in self denial….
They’ll never admit it on here. It’s all clear for everyone to see, but you know the usual excuse…”you’re a hater”, “too negative” etc. Our strike force is nothing compared to the other top 4. It’s obvious to anyone with a brain that we can’t win the league with the strikers we have. Even if we do sign a dm and a cb, frontline still isn’t strong enough.
I want Sanogo to make it at the club. I just hope he handles the expectation of replacing a starter at the club like Anelka did in the 98 double winning team. While Giroud is no Ian Wright, if Sanogo can get that one goal, i think he will be ok.
Sanogo’s for the Future clearly…
Send him out on loan…
Get Bony or maybe Falcao (If Possible). Cavani is… A’ont know, Over-rated?
Get Carvalho (DM, CB) and Nastasic (If we can) and get a Left back. We dont have Vermalaen to be covering for Gibbs anymore whenever he gets injured so, get a Left and put Monreal under some pressure to impress or be sold. Competition can only help…
All these after we send Besiktas home making em wish they had met some other opponent in this round…
#COYG!
Realistically, I think we’d get someone like Carvalho if we qualify for CL.
If not, I’d guess we’d get a CB and that’s about it. It’s very hard to imagine Arsene getting an awesome striker in time before the window closes.
But, whatever happens, I’m with this team. Come on you gunners!
Apparently wenger has said that he is not interested in a striker. Which means that we are not going to sign a striker. Or will sign 2…
Totally off topic, but I have been wondering if anyone else had noticed that our training kit from the champions league did not have the ‘Fly Emirates’ insignia on the front. Could this mean that there is scope for an additional (endorsement) revenue stream?
Arsene just doesn’t give anything away, does he? COYG
Forget the transfer !!!!!! … What really matters is to qualify tomorrow so please let’s be behind Sanogo or Campbell or whoever leads the attack…. If we don’t get CL nobody interesting will come in this transfer window … Nothing matters but tomorrow’s game ! … After we win, let’s discuss if Carvahlo is too expensive or if we are delusional trying to get falcao or cavanni
All of our business should have already have been completed and this wouldn’t have been a problem
Cant remember a player not playing so great and yet gets quite a lot of hype. Even a spud mate of mine(I know) thinks he’ll be a quality player soon enough. He’s got something about him. If he starts scoring I got a feeling he’ll improve quite rapidly. I for one will support him. COYG
Sanogo had a big impact on our FA cup final win, as well as being excellent in the first part of the game in Munich. He clearly isn’t afraid of the big occasions, and the four goals in pre-season can’t have hurt his confidence. I wouldn’t mind him starting tomorrow at all, although I wouldn’t mind Alexis starting centrally either. With a nearly first choice defense and Flamini-Wilshere-Ozil in the middle we should have a good enough platform for any of our attackers to win the game for us.
Ox wasn’t told to say that by the club at all was he?
Sanogo is a mistake signing,he his not good enough for arsenal,a loan deal will do him good.relying on Sanogo to lead our attack would be absolute madness
I love the above article. What’s the Ox gonna say but Sanogoals is a great player. Alex isn’t going to tell the truth, is he? Sanogoals should be out on loan somewhere, not learning his trade in the spotlight at one of the biggest clubs in the world. He’s three years away from being the finished article. But our glorious leader just can’t see this. What a strange situation we find ourselvs in. But this is where Wenger should prove just what a great manager he is and go out there and spend big to bring in either Cavani or… Read more »
I know you ain’t happy with the situation at Arsenal but I think calling AW a senile old fool is going to far.
I wish Giroud a speedy recovery. But whoever leads our attack, it is important to get behind them on gameday at the stadium and sing their praises. I may not agree Giroud is the right man to lead our attack, but whenever i am at a game I will allways sing his chant and be supportive. The same goes for Sanogo, I may be unconvinced he is the right man to challenge Giroud for a first team place just yet, but come gameday i will get behind him to regardless. And i would urge everyone else to do the same.… Read more »
Sanogo obviously is a player with great potential…before he sustained that serious injury back at auxurre, he was once hyped to be the best french talent in his age group. Infact he was know for having great for his size. However, he has fallen behind due to that injury and its wrong for wenger to rely on him alongside giroud to win titles. He should be on loan instead of having to face unnecessary pressure of having to lead the line for a club like arsenal. This is only his second year of playing top flight football…really not fair on… Read more »
Big decisions tomorrow with so much at stake. Hopefully one of them will be to bench Ozil. It frustrates me to watch an international world cup winner forger basic defensive principles. He needs to become a better team player and that might mean some extra training sessions with Bould and a spell on the bench to improve. I think Ox will start on the left but he should play in the centre as he can be so effective there, For me Rosiky must start we have missed his attacking flair and directness which would certainly support Sanchez who was left… Read more »
Anyone who thinks Wilshere should play defensive midfield, Chamberlain through the middle, and Ozil on the bench is mad
On the lighter side of the news Arsenal loanee Benik Afobe scores within seconds of coming on to make it MK Dons 3:0 Man U … hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah 😉
Sorry make that 4:0 Afobe grabs a second rotflmfao
He now has a brace. 4-0 bet Moyes must be enjoying this
Apparently that bloke with the oversized neck and the squished face is Man United’s saviour …..
David Moyes uncorks another bottle of champagne at this point 😉
And wasn’t Januzaj mean’t to be the next big thing or something 😉
I wonder if Di Maria is watching
“Hi this is Angel … any chance I can change my mind and come back …”
What a load of bollocks, when has a player ever called a team mate crap? Never is the answer.
Sanogo is out of his depth and as has already been mentioned needs to go out on loan for several years. Just repeating that Sanogo is a very good player over and over again doesn’t make it the truth.
Buy a real striker!!
Judas once asked AW to transfer Jesus out.
Yaya like Ox said has shown good talent, I am positive if he works hard. He will be a very good striker in future. But let us face this moment, is he the answer to our attack issues? No! For a team to win a competitive title, it needs a super striker and a super DM
Is it a coincidence that we have not won the title since Viera left?
Show me one team that won the league with makeshift and below par DM and strikers, It’s a challenge.
At the moment we have no better options than Sanogo. Clearly we need to buy a new striker and I think we might need one on loan as well. I hope Sanogo pulls off a good performance as already the knives are sharpening
Big Knives…
We are going to need a massive performance from Sanogo tomorrow. Attacking second line needs to be sharp. I prefer Alexis RW and Ozil in the middle but wonder if it is sufficient cover for Flamini with the German in front of him. Jack is likely to start next to Flamini but there is also the option of Rosicky perhaps later on to protect a lead. Out LW, likely Podolski will not feature unless we are in trouble and even so. Santi may get the nod but there is also the option of more direct injection of pace from Ox.… Read more »
I want to see Poldi & Giroud up front,Campbell & Sanogo on RW and LW. In short, I want to see all our strikers playing!
@john “anyone who thinks …is mad” do like you intellectual critic of my team choice. Your verbal reasoning I take on board and bollocks to you matey. You sound like JT. Jack is more than capable of playing in a defensive midfield role and they did say Wenger was mad playing Arteta there. I have every faith in Jack to play a good night in that role. As for Ox i guess you did not watch him boss central midfield against AC. With Rosiky making up the trio this would make quite a dynamic midfield. I like Flamini but he… Read more »