Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain feels he is well on the way to full fitness after coming through 71 minutes of Friday's FA Cup tie against Coventry City.
The England international made his first start since the opening day of the season, lining up alongside Jack Wilshere in central midfield, and produced a solid display as a brace from Lukas Podolski plus late strikes from Olivier Giroud and Santi Cazorla took Arsenal into the fifth round.
Oxlade-Chamberlain faded slightly in the second half before being replaced by debutant Gedion Zelalem but he expects to get stronger in the weeks ahead.
"It was really nice to get back on the pitch from the start of the game tonight and a little run-out in midfield was nice for me as well"
"I'm a bit tired and I'm not match fit yet," he told Arsenal Player after the match. "In the second half that showed a little bit in my performance but that will come.
"It was really nice to get back on the pitch from the start of the game tonight and a little run-out in midfield was nice for me as well. That's a stepping stone in the right direction for me and with a few more starts I should be back to match fitness."
'Professional' was the watchword as Arsenal, knocked out of the FA Cup by Blackburn last February, avoided another home defeat to lower league opposition.
"The boss warned us that we needed to come out all guns blazing and really get the job done properly," said Oxlade-Chamberlain. "I think we did that, getting the first goal was always important tonight and we managed to push on from there.
"At the start of the second half, credit to them, they came out right at it again. When we got the third goal it killed it again. To win 4-0 is what we wanted to do tonight and ultimately we're through to the next round.
"It's hard coming into games against lower league opposition but we knew that they were a threat. We could see they tried to play out from the back and they did at times, they played some really good football.
"We gave them the respect that they deserved and rightly so. We are Arsenal Football Club so if we prepare right, approach the game properly we want to be coming out of those games winning them. Tonight we showed good professionalism and we managed to get the win."
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