Alex
Oxlade-Chamberlain enjoyed the perfect return to action as he arrived in
the nick of time to mark his first appearance in five months with a
sublime goal.
It
has been a long road back for the England international, who was robbed
of a place at Euro 2016 when he suffered a setback in May, but he went
some way to banishing his frustrations with a 45-minute cameo in a 1-1
draw with Lens that will have thrilled Arsene Wenger.
Oxlade-Chamberlain
had not kicked a ball in public since he collided with Barcelona's
Javier Mascherano during a Champions League last-16 game in February but
there was no sign of rustiness as he produced a glorious chip to cancel
out Mathias Autret's first half strike.
Though
Arsenal are without a raft of players who were involved in the European
Championship, the squad Wenger brought to northern France for the first
game of their summer campaign was still crammed with experience and
quality.
This
provided an opportunity for men who finished last season on the
fringes, such as Calum Chambers and Theo Walcott, with an opportunity to
remind Wenger of their quality, particularly as the opening Premier
League assignment against Liverpool is only 23 days away.
Lens,
however, are much further on in their preparations – the opening Ligue 2
fixtures are next week – and it showed in the opening exchanges, with
the hosts stronger with their running and sharper with their touches.
Such
a fast start should really have been rewarded with a 13th-minute lead
but after Autret had streaked past Per Mertesacker, he couldn't find a
finish to match and dragged his shot wide beyond Emiliano Martinez, who
was given a chance in goal with Petr Cech and David Ospina away.
Lens,
who included former teenage Tottenham protégé John Bostock in their
starting line-up, looked like they could cause problems for Mertesacker
and Mathieu Debuchy every time they went forward in the opening
exchanges but, eventually, anxious Arsenal began to settle.
The
closest they came to a goal before half-time was through Alex Iwobi, a
player of whom much will be heard over the next 12 months, yet his
terrific right-foot strike curled just wide; Walcott had a couple of
surges down the right but couldn't find the final ball.
Ultimately
Arsenal trailed at the interval, as Lens got the goal they had been
threatening. Abdellah Zoubir seized on a loose ball and scurried into
the area before attempting to clip a finish over Martinez; he was equal
to that but his parry ended up at the feet of Autret, who duly tapped
in.
As
is the case in these games, Wenger made a string of substitutions for
the second period – it seemed telling that Debuchy, who was booked for a
foul on Anthony Scaramozzino, made way with Chambers going to
right-back – with the most significant being the arrival of
Oxlade-Chamberlain.
He
was involved in Arsenal's best moment, when stepping inside a challenge
and teeing up Walcott with a precise pass but the striker was denied an
equaliser following a last-ditch tackle by the hulking figure of Abdoul
Ba.
Yet
Arsenal would not be denied and when Serge Gnabry saw a chance in the
81st minute, he ushered Oxlade-Chamberlain in and he did not waste the
opening, dinking the ball over Nicolas Douchez from eight yards. He
walked off with barely a flicker. You can bet it meant much more.
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