Arsenal 3 Shrewsbury 1: Oxlade-Chamberlain strikes to save Wenger's blushes

Posted Wednesday, September 21, 2011 by Dailystar.co.uk

Until teenager Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain marked his first start with his first goal for Arsenal, that vote of confidence for Arsene Wenger appeared to be the only evidence of self-assurance at the Emirates.

Beyond Ivan Gazidis’s justifiable faith in the manager, the malaise here seemed to have spread from those stuttering senior professionals and into the more junior ranks.

Wenger made 11 changes to the side that lost at Blackburn, handing out a total of five debuts by the time a succession of youths stepped off the bench, and what hard work they made of this encounter with a team from three divisions below them.

Arsenal 3 Shrewsbury 1: Oxlade-Chamberlain strikes to save Wenger's blushes
Teenage kicks: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain lets fly from outside the area to score his first Arsenal goal

Arsenal 3 Shrewsbury 1: Oxlade-Chamberlain strikes to save Wenger's blushes
Down to a 17th-minute goal from James Collins and as chastened as their colleagues were at Old Trafford and Ewood Park, it seemed a miserable start to the season was about to hit a new nadir.

But first came the 34th-minute equaliser from Kieran Gibbs, then a slightly better second-half performance marked by goals from summer signings Oxlade-Chamberlain and Yossi Benayoun.

In Oxlade-Chamberlain, there was reason for Wenger to be cheerful. The 18-year-old arrived from Southampton as the most expensive of his acquisitions from the last window and he went some way to demonstrating why he was worth £12million with a fine display on the wing.

Add to that the fact this was a most welcome win — only Arsenal’s seventh in 24 games dating back to that crushing Wembley defeat by Birmingham — and Wenger might even have managed a smile. He certainly acknowledged the supporters who sang his name towards the end of the second half.

But it was an irritated, rather angry Wenger who appeared before the media afterwards. He was irked, seemingly, by the vote of confidence and infuriated by the suggestion he needed a new defensive coach.

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