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Arsenal ride luck to see off Olympiakos, 2-1

29 September 2011 03:17 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Arsenal assistant manager Pat Rice expects Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to have a major impact with the Gunners after the teenage winger became the youngest English goalscorer in the Champions League in his side’s 2-1 win over Olympiakos, APA reporrts.

Just five months ago, Oxlade-Chamberlain was completing his first full season as pro with Southampton in League One, but he showed no signs of being overawed when Gunners boss Arsene Wenger asked him to fill in for Theo Walcott on the right flank against the Greeks at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday.

Oxlade-Chamberlain, the son of former England international Mark Chamberlain, marked his debut in Europe’s elite club competition with a dynamic display that included a composed eighth minute goal that belied his tender years and Rice believes the 18-year-old has a bright future.

"Arsenal supporters are going to see a lot of this boy," Rice said. "He can go inside and outside and has an injection of pace.

"What he needs now is to be consistent in his play. I’m sure that is something he will be working on.

"He is certainly not a stupid boy. He’s a very confident boy, a strong boy and he has good people around him who will be telling him all the right things."

Wenger was willing to splash out Â£12 million on Oxlade-Chamberlain during the close-season despite his lack of experience and the precocious youngster’s similiarity to Walcott must have played some role in persuading the Frenchman to take the gamble.

Rice admits Walcott, who also graduated from Southampton’s academy before joining Arsenal, has taken Oxlade-Chamberlain under his wing since he moved to the Emirates Stadium.

But that won’t stop the hugely ambitious Oxlade-Chamberlain trying to take his mate’s place and becoming Arsenal’s youngest Champions League scorer in just his third appearance for the club wasn’t a bad start.

"He is very friendly with Theo and I’m sure he will give him the benefit of his experience," Rice added.

"He has got a big challenge to get in ahead of Theo because he is strong willed as well but that’s what he will aim for."

While Oxlade-Chamberlain’s performance was the high-point of Arsenal’s second successive victory, Wenger was shifting uncomfortably in his seat in the stands as he served out his touchline ban.

Not for the first time the reason for Wenger’s angst was his defence.

With Thomas Vermaelen, Laurent Koscielny and Johan Djourou all sidelined, Wenger was forced to deploy midfielder Alex Song at centre-back and the results were unconvincing.

Arsenal should have been out of sight after Brazilian left-back Andre Santos scored his first goal for the club 12 minutes after Oxlade-Chamberlain’s opener.

But Arsenal’s back-four went missing when David Fuster headed home from Ariel Ibagaza’s cross in the 27th minute and the hosts had to ride their luck after that.

Wojciech Szczesny was forced to make good saves to deny Kevin Mirallas and Rafik Djebbour, while Mikel Arteta cleared off the line from Djebbour.

Rice admitted Arsenal had struggled to stem the tide at times and he was fuming with the way Fuster was granted space to score.

"In the first 25 mins we were really in it but we lost our way a bit after that," Rice said.

"From a defender’s point of view, it was a really poor goal to concede.

"In the second half we had to knuckle down and get our shape right. You can’t say we had all of the game. In fairness they did well."

Rice also denied Robin van Persie’s demotion to the bench was a punishment for admitting over the weekend that he couldn’t guarantee signing a new contract with the club.

"Robin has been playing quite a lot of games and Marouane Chamakh needs games and we thought we would give him one," Rice said.