Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain expects Arsenal will have to overcome further hiccups before the end of the season, however, the England midfielder says the way the Gunners beat Bournemouth following their Boxing Day shellacking at the hands of Southampton bodes well for their title challenges.
The Gunners’ 2-0 victory against the Cherries saw Arsene Wenger’s men return to the top of the Premier League table; a position they will retain into 2016 if Leicester City fail to beat Manchester City this evening.
Reflecting on a season that has already seen Arsenal lose four games in the league, and eight games in total, Chamberlain underlined the importance of being able to bounce back.
“We wanted nothing less than a win, so we got the job done, and now we’re on to the next one,” the 22-year-old told Arsenal.com.
“You need to build momentum. It’s all about getting the right results and as many results as possible from here.
“We’re in a strong position now – it’s where we would like to be. There have been some hiccups along the way and I’m sure there will be a few more but we need to build on this half of the season and go into the New Year positively and in the right manner.
“We’ll hopefully get some injured players back soon and that will boost us again, but the boys have been really good so far. We need to keep that going.
“We know we’re capable of winning games. The boss said to us that the team that lost at Southampton is no different to the one that beat Manchester City at home.
“From day to day, we need to turn it around if we have a bad result. We need to turn that around and we got the right result.”
Arsenal face a heavy schedule in January, kicking off 2016 with a home game with Newcastle before Sunderland visit the Emirates in the FA Cup 3rd round. Tricky away games at Liverpool and Stoke follow, before we tackle Chelsea at home and then the prospect of another FA Cup game.
Hmm. Oh well.
As Nat King Cole famously sang…
There may be trouble ahead,
But while there’s moonlight and music and love and romance,
Let’s face the music and dance.
Good lad Ox, well played. Hope to see more of him in January.
As Amy Lawrence said in one of her most recent appearances on the podcast – the key to winning the league is constancy after the Christmas period.
All of our previous successes were when we hardly dropped any points in the new year.
That will be the key to winning this league.
Hi, which episode was Amy most recently in?
I think he’s referring to the Tuesday club’s most recent episode, where Amy makes a guest appearance. #arsenalpodcastmania
I got Amy’s book about The Invincibles for Christmas this year. Can’t wait to read and relive that glorious year.
Perhaps we’ll have another great book written by the time this season’s over!
The odd hiccup and we can look back as PL champions saying we flew.
We just need to avoid the (injuries, complacency, referees) flu.
Love this, I think the media tend to be inconsistent, in particular with us. Every time we drop points it’s down to mental fragilities as inherent team weaknesses, but every time we win it’s just a flash in the pan. It’s ridiculously unfair. Sure, we got smashed, but now we’re top of the league. May can’t come soon enough, we’re gonna be champions. We’re the best team in the league at the moment and over the course of this season we’ve been the most consistent. And of course, we will drop more points, every team does, but we need to… Read more »
I know we’re in for the Egyptian midfielder (name not coming to me atm), but we really ought to get another CAM as a backup/rotation for Özil as well. Wilshire isn’t coming back anytime soon, can’t rely on Rosicky, Cazorla gone until at least March, that is damning if the we lose our only true playmaker left for any period of time.
el nino.
Maybe we can visit Real Madrid supermarket and buy Isco.
We could go to my local one and buy Aldi?
Ha ha,but Arsene is more likely to go to a yard sale and pick an Amaury Bischoff!
You know, his passion for pet projects 🙂
Wenger rightly points to the ‘mental resources’ of the team to bounce back from a bad result. I think as well that, this season we have not let the injuries bog us done. In this calendar year we have so many examples of players coming in from the cold to turn the adverse injury situation into an opportunity for themselves. The one thing that I would really like us to improve on is the mental preparation for the matches. As brilliant as our performance through out this calendar year has been it’s games like Monaco, Olympiacos, even Southampton over the… Read more »
Nice of the ox to be so optimistic – don’t go into the rest of the season expecting more hiccups!! Aim high and don’t accept second best!!!
At the current rate, 80 points will be enough to win the league.
That’s 41 more points.
We very rarely draw.
So 14 wins.
5 more hiccups.
Out of those 14 wins I hope we get those 6 pointers.
OT but is anyone else getting fed up with Theo fucking up chances?
He hasn’t moved on from when he couldn’t do it if he had time to think about it in front of goal. Now he can’t do it when given time to control the ball after a long pass…he needs to work on his mind imo.
Were you fed up when he banged in the opener against city a few days ago?
No, it was a terrific strike that he is fucking good at doing! He didn’t have to wait for the ball… that’s my point! When he has time to think….I am not a Theo hater mate!
…anyway Theo has just called me to ask for my “mental services” so I am busy right now…:-)
We play 38 league games,same as other top leagues. Have one major cup competition, same as other top leagues. So why is premier league’s schedule so tight?
English teams need to play league cup. And BPL end earlier than other league.
You may want to take note that German league only has 18 teams.
BPL?! Stop saying that. Smh
lets just win the next one & take it from there.
not too many, hopefully……for our sanity!
Hiccùps? Own goals you mean, Chambo?
Realistically, yes he’s right, but it concerns me that he so readily accepts defeat as a matter of fact. Winners are people who don’t accept losing in any way.
The OX is one in our squad who is still fresh. He is currently low on confidence. A few more starts and he should be back to full match condition. I just hope he takes his chances like Joel. Yesterday he was good. C’MON Gunners!
Bloody hell no more hiccups please. We never seem to turn the corner with these. Ox I thought did well. Not sure why he had such a low rating. He’ll need a bit more game time to sharpen up but he is trying to be simpler and a bit more diligent defensively. Its hard to fault his main attribute which is close control and bringing the ball from deep or wing play. Its a great asseet for us to have. What we want to restrict is too much of it in deeper areas. We don’t fault Alexis for taking on… Read more »
Ox, along with the likes of Chambers, Campbell, Gabriel, Walcott and Gibbs are vital to the rest of this season. A relatively low amount of football (some more than others) and fresh legs when needed. Valuable squad players indeed. I genuinely think we have the strongest squad in the Premier league, and yes we may lose another 3 or 4 games this season which is normal given the fixtures we have and what’s happened so far, but it’s about making sure we turn tricky draws into wins and our fresher squad players, including those returning from injury, will help us… Read more »
Hiccup due to Toothless performance perhaps.
We dont want anymore hiccups Mr Ox
Your statement should have been “we expect difficult moments but we will work hard to avert any hiccups”.
Hiccups I can cope with. It’s the enormous bottom burps we need to avoid.
I’m with the HFB. It’s better to lose 4-0 once than 1-0 four times.
like the hiccup leicester and Mancity had today. Top of the league into 2016. Hope this stays the same in may!
Very appropriate reference. But “Let’s Face the Music and Dance” is, more famously, Fred Astaire in 1932 (NKC 1964).
Dancing through to Spring will do it – COYG
COYG! 2016 is OURS, GODDAMNIT!!!