Jack Wilshere, Joel Campbell and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain among Europe’s elite

He may be out injured, but Jack Wilshere is among three Arsenal players short listed for Tuttosport’s annual ‘Golden Boy’ award – the unofficial version of FIFA’s World Player of the Year crown.

Wilshere, who finished second behind Manchester City striker Mario Balotelli last year, is joined by Gunners team-mates Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Lorient loanee Joel Campbell. The trio will face stern competition for the overall title though, with Eden Hazard, Mario Gotze, Xherdan Shaqiri, Thiago, and Phil Jones all expected to boast big totals.

You can cast your vote here.

217 thoughts on “Jack Wilshere, Joel Campbell and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain among Europe’s elite

  • November 29, 2011 at 10:28 pm
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    I saw what happened on their goal too…it just looked like Coquelin signalled that someone else should take Aguero instead of himself and he didn’t bother to track back. Don’t forget that he picked up a knock as well in the first half, where I thought he busted his leg!!! That may have been a factor for his reluctance to track his man to our goal. BUT that doesn’t excuse him from not even attempting to get back to his full capacity. I love Frimpong…I mean even if he doesn’t start many matches, he is the type of player we need at this club and to top it all off, he was very, very effective in the match!!! That counts the most, but he has such pride for our club. It oozes out of him!!! Love the guy, just love him and I hope that he decides to stay with us even if Song is in his way. We need him because he lives and plays for the club. Chamberlain won’t be on the wing that much longer. He’ll be there if Wenger persists with Ramsey, who I love, don’t get me wrong, but he could be playing behind the striker right now and not look out of place at all. He’s got everything to do it. I mean the ball stays glued to his feet, he has great shooting and passing technique and he has solid vision too. There were times where he was looking to play that final ball and his teammates just weren’t quite on the same wavelength. With RVP up there he could have set him free on 2 or 3 occasions. He has more facets to his play than Ramsey BUT his pace allows him to play on the wings so if Wenger does keep using Ramsey, which is fine, then he can play on the wings too. But you can tell that he will end up as a central attacking midfielder at some point. I hope I’m not waaaaaaaaay off on this one. It’s a shame we were knocked out, simply for the fact that we won’t get to see his talents for a while. He’ll play the Champions League match I would imagine though, and should get a solid FA Cup run as well!!!Unplayable for most of the match he was.

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    • November 29, 2011 at 11:14 pm
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      To be honest Milo, while I agree he really is more of a central midfielder but with pace, at Arsenal we often put central attackers out wide and with AOC having the pace on top of that, he will fit perfect in the winger spot.

  • November 29, 2011 at 10:36 pm
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    For me Chamakh is not good enough. He breaks up our play too much. Either he do one touch to the wrong player or he losses the ball. He used to be awesome of holding the ball and then pass it and could even dribble some but now he has totally lost it. I believe its because he is not playing regularly.

    And Miquel clearly isn’t ideal for the left back spot but did quite well for a CB.

    Other than that I think we did really good today.

    Frimpong and Coquelin was awesome today. Chamberlain is getting there slowly. Benayoun is giving his heart to Arsenal and is doing a very good job. I almost get a tear for that :)

    But clearly we are missing a good striker. I have very very high hopes for Benik but it will take 2-3 more years for him so we need to buy new in Jan there are no other excuses for that.

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  • November 29, 2011 at 11:30 pm
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    Well, yeah, you are right, it would be interesting to see him in the middle though. BUT he cuts in so much that I found that he turned up in central areas inyways if I remember correctly. I am worried that someone like Frimpong will leave because he isn’t getting any first team action. Like Eboue, even more so because he is serious and he has just as much promise as Eboue, you need a character like that in the dressing room!!!I really don’t want to see him leave. He has great belief in his ability and you can tell that he’s just bursting to play. That usually breeds impatience and means that the player could leave for more first team football. IF he leaves I pray that it is to a club from abroad and NOT one that plays it’s football in England!!!

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  • November 30, 2011 at 6:37 am
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    Absolutely LOVE Francis Coquelin. Such a superb little player. Chamberlain is gonna be a star, no doubt about it. Koscieleny is becoming a complete and utter beast, impeccable again tonight.

    Really didn’t deserved to lose. Played well and competed excellently.

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  • November 30, 2011 at 8:41 am
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    Milo, you cannot blame Coquelin for the goal.
    if you want to blame somebody you can blame Chamberlain or Djourou.
    Chamberlain took the corner and after we lost the second ball instead of tracking Dzeko just watched Johnson pass to him. Had he been more aware of his defensive responsibility he could have stopped Johnson pass to Dzeko or at least make his presence felt and impede Dzeko to pass back to Johnson.
    Coquelin signaled to DJOUROU who was the closest to Aguero to get tight to him. Djourou did not and Aguero scored. To me that looks like bad defending. Compare that to Miquel who when faced to the same situation went very close. It is better to commit a foul in those situation rather and give a chance to your team to regroup.

    Frimpong cannot play on the wing as he does not have the trickery necessary to play there. He is a central midfielder. His sudden burst works because he can sidestep an opponent on either side when he receives the ball then run into the gap. On the wing he would not be able to that. Even if he were to sidestep the full back he would then be faced with a central midfield player or a defender. Look at Alex Chamberlain who was always faced with three players when cutting inside.

    Chamakh needs to be put out of his misery. He was woeful yesterday: ball bouncing off him, bad first touch, never in the penalty box. The problem is that with him going to the ACN and Morocco expected to do well, nobody will be willing to pay money to take him.

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  • November 30, 2011 at 5:30 pm
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    I’m going to stick up for Chamakh here, he had a decent game yesterday and doesn’t deserve all the criticism he gets. It’s become popular to slag him off and everybody does it. His movement was good, he was very good with his back to goal, and some of his link up play with the midfielders was excellent. If you watch the big chance that Park had early on, and Chamberlain’s shot that was destined for the top corner, Chamakh was key in creating both of those opportunities.

    Chamakh isn’t really a goalscorer, which might sound daft for a striker. His shooting and finishing are only average, which I suspect is why so many people call him ‘shit’ and ‘useless’, but that’s to ignore the rest of his game. His strengths are holding the ball up, bringing others into play, and of course his great ability in the air. He continues to do the first two well, and his aerial ability often goes unused (as it did again last time) because we don’t deliver enough quality balls for him. How many good corners did we put in last night? What about free-kicks? Crosses? Chamakh’s first and only decent ball in the air came right at the end of the game, which he couldn’t quite get his head to. Strikers need service, and Chamakh rarely gets the service he thrives on.

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  • November 30, 2011 at 7:38 pm
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    Nah he’s just not good enough. You were impressed by some pretty bog standard centre forward play just because we are so used to him being completely useless. Last night was probably the best game he’s had for us for ages and he was still mediocre at very best. Even the most mundane tasks look a real struggle with Chamakh these days and then we’re surprised when he actually does something right.

    Park is just a much better player. I’d get rid of Chamakh in January. We could sell him for a few million and make a profit. And sign another centre forward, maybe a Moussa Sow or someone.

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  • November 30, 2011 at 9:45 pm
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    Valentin, I never said that Frimpong was a winger you knob!!! I’m not THAT stupid…come on man, just read the comments properly. God.

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  • December 1, 2011 at 1:23 am
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    There’s nothing bog standard about it, hold-up and link-up play as good as Chamakh can perform when on form requires great strength, control, intelligence and awareness. He’s proved himself more than capable of performing at our level with 10 goals, 6 assists and 4 penalties won in his first 21 games for Arsenal. He’s struggled to reproduce that form and I’m of the opinion that we need another striker, but Chamakh deserves more respect. With RVP and Bendtner injured he played out of his skin for the team twice a week for 6 months.

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    • December 1, 2011 at 4:37 pm
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      There was nothing particularly outstanding about Chamakh’s play on tuesday. There was someone decent play and some rubbish as well. It’s commendable that your desperate to defend our players but I can’t believe anyone is happy to see Chamakh start games for us. He hasn’t had a good game for like a year. We can (and really should) do so much better than him.

  • December 1, 2011 at 10:23 am
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    is Andy Polo coming to Arsenal then?

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  • December 2, 2011 at 3:14 pm
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    I think arsenal should play the B squad against Wigan…. Maybe not entirely but players like Coq, AOC and Park need some game time. I dont think wigan is much of a threat and we need to bring along these players because we would need them as the schedule gets hectic.

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    • December 2, 2011 at 5:55 pm
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      We played our second string in midweek v City and they’ll get another run-out this coming week against Olympiakos; the week after that there’s no midweek game. We’ll be full strength against Wigan, the first team is playing just once a week for 3 weeks running and ought to be very fresh going into Christmas.

    • December 2, 2011 at 8:38 pm
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      Yeah, I thought you might have ;)

      Should be good seeing the OX-Coq-Pong trio getting more game time against quality opposition.

  • December 6, 2011 at 9:54 pm
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    Good lesson for the kids tonight.. Olympiakos played a seriously high tempo pressing game.. Poor Vito though.. Could see his lack of on field time affected his game from the off..

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  • December 6, 2011 at 10:57 pm
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    Felt sorry for young players tonite, the older players didn’t help them just kept puting the team under pressure and gave away sloppy goals, how did squillaci ever play for France? We need to buy in January so please Santa can I have a centre forward for arsenal to take the pressure of Rvp.

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  • December 7, 2011 at 10:59 am
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    Remember when this site used to be good?

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  • December 7, 2011 at 6:30 pm
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    any idea what might have happened to Jamie Sanderson..???? Anyone close to him pliz say something as to why this beautiful site went in hibernation????
    This used to be one of my fav. site along’with untold arsenal…

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  • December 8, 2011 at 6:35 pm
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    Check his Twitter feed – apparently the site is on holiday temporarily whilst it gets a redesign. I haven’t a clue why he doesn’t put up a post saying so, because it seems that a lot of people don’t read his Twitter.

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  • December 11, 2011 at 5:55 am
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    Is young guns dead? Why isn’t Jamie writing new articles?

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  • December 15, 2011 at 12:40 am
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    Anyone got a clue as to the reason that Alban Banjaku is leaving Arsenal?

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  • January 5, 2012 at 6:09 pm
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    What happened to Youngguns?

    It may be that Jamie is writing sports articles for a few papers and magazines now, and can’t spend any time on it any more.

    Seriously though, does anyone know?

    Reply

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