ALEX OXLADE-CHAMBERLAIN says forgotten Arsenal star Gabriel Jesus has impressed him after returning to the club for training.
The former England star, 33, was invited back to the Gunners’ London Colney training ground after being released by Besiktas.
He has even played minutes for the Under-21 side in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Manchester United.
And he has opened up on his experiences of joining up with Arsenal again in a chat with the Athletic.
Oxlade-Chamberlain, who played 198 times for the Gunners, picked out Jesus as one player who had particularly caught the eye during his sessions with the team.
He said: “What a player [Jesus] is. I’ve played against him many times, but just seeing how he trains, the way he works, how sharp his finishing is, he’s really impressive.”
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Jesus has been out since January with an ACL injury but is stepping up his return and featured in the same friendly as Oxlade-Chamberlain against United.
Oxlade-Chamberlain also raved about Arsenal‘s youngsters – particularly Max Dowman.
He added: “And I’ve been really impressed by the young guys, like Max (Dowman), Ethan (Nwaneri) and Myles (Lewis-Skelly). Ability-wise and the way they are as characters, it’s really impressive at such a young age.
“When I saw [Dowman] for the first time, I was thinking, ‘Let’s see what all this talk is about’.
“It wasn’t even a session where you could do that much, but right from the off, you could tell he is a proper player, the way he controls the ball and the way he moves.
“And from what I see, he’s a really good character, mature in the way he carries himself.”
Oxlade-Chamberlain’s return to Arsenal came eight years after he left the club to join Liverpool in a £35million deal in 2017.
He is being given a chance to build up his fitness levels as he looks to find a new club in January.
The former Southampton youth star insisted he was “not ready to call it quits” and said he “just wants the opportunity to show what I can do” after a difficult spell at Besiktas that saw him fall out of favour.
Oxlade-Chamberlain has been embedded into a group of Arsenal players hoping to win their first title since 2004.
Everything has got bigger. Arsene kept his circle quite small and intimate.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
And he admitted he was blown away by how different their set-up was from when he was there.
He added: “Everything has got bigger. Arsene kept his circle quite small and intimate.
“The number of people who worked around the players was small, whereas now the number of staff, the number of players, the way they do the nutrition and everything else, everything is bigger and has gone in that direction of being elite-level.
“It’s different, but straight away I could see everyone is singing from the same hymnsheet — staff and players — and the whole club is moulded in that one direction.”
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