Oxlade-Chamberlain: Chambers at home with Arsenal

13 August 2014 12:44

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has been impressed with the manner in which recent signing Calum Chambers has settled at Arsenal.

The 19-year-old defender joined the London club for an undisclosed fee, reported to be in the region of £16million, from Premier League rivals Southampton last month and has made an encouraging start to his Arsenal career.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger hailed the teenager as “outstanding” in the Community Shield victory over Manchester City on Sunday and expects him to challenge Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny for a starting berth at centre-back following Thomas Vermaelen’s move to Barcelona.

Oxlade-Chamberlain, who also joined Arsenal from Southampton as a teenager, is backing Chambers to make a big impact at Emirates Stadium and revealed that he already seems very much at home in his new surroundings.

“I’m just trying to take Calum under my wing and show him the ropes,” Oxlade-Chamberlain told Arsenal’s official website.

“He’s a really good lad and everyone really likes him – the boys really want to go out of their way to help him bed in.

“We saw him play for Arsenal for the first time at the Emirates Cup and I thought he was superb for a 19-year-old playing centre back, against really good players. I thought he looked very assured and he’s going to be a great talent for the club.

“It’s really good to see him here. It’s almost weird because I can remember being in his position a few years ago – coming from Southampton to a big club like Arsenal – even though Southampton is a big club.

“But to come to a team like Arsenal, he’s playing with players like Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez. When you move to a team like Arsenal it’s very surprising to start off with, but he has settled in really quickly and all the boys love him.

“He’s already trying to look after me, he’s on the pitch trying to tell me to switch on and that’s a really good sign because it shows he’s feeling confident and comfortable and that’s what we like to see.

“He seems like he’s enjoying himself so I think he’s going to have a good time here.”