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'We put our game plan to good effect'

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored twice as Arsenal picked up a 2-0 win over Reading to advance into the last eight of the EFL Cup.

The England international's double proved enough to secure victory at Emirates Stadium, and here's what he had to say post-match:

on how good that felt as a team performance…
Yeah, I think it was what we needed. We wanted to win, that was the first thing. I thought Reading made it hard for us at times, they played some good football and obviously that team that we had out tonight, we don’t always play together as much. So at times we struggled to organise, but after a while we settled into the game and we organised between us a bit better and we managed to handle the game and I think it was comfortable for us in the end.

on whether he prefers facing teams who try to play passing football…
Yeah, obviously. But it depends how well they do it! We knew that they wanted to play out from the back and we knew that that was an opportunity for us to win the ball back high and then break and be dangerous sort of on the counter. I thought we showed that in spells. We created a lot of chances from winning the ball back off of them high. That was a credit to us because that was part of the game plan and we put it to good effect.

on whether he thinks his cup form will influence team selection for league games…
Yeah, I hope so. Any game that I play in is an opportunity for me to show what I can do. And whether it’s the league, the Champions League, the League Cup or the FA Cup - it’s all important. First and foremost, it’s all game time and it’s good to get your confidence up and to try and play the way you want to play and it’s still a very good standard of football. Reading are a good team, so for me personally, any chance I get to play is an opportunity for me to show and hopefully that form will carry over into the league and be rewarded with more starts.

on whether it feels more positive inside the club than it has done in the past…
Yeah, I think the spirit is really good in the team. Even when we drew to Middlesbrough on the weekend, it was almost like we lost the game and it shows how hungry this team are to win and we’re in a spell where we feel like we should be winning every game and we can win every game, so that’s a good thing. So I think it is really positive at the moment and the team’s got a lot of confidence. I know from my personal point of view, I’ve got a lot of faith in the team and what we’re doing as players and I believe we can do good things this year. But there’s a long way to go. But as you said, the positive vibes around us are really important. We need to keep the momentum going and put them to good use.

 

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