Top 10 things you need to know about Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain plus video of him in action

By Mirror Football in Football Spy

Published 14:24 08/08/11

Arsenal have completed the signing of Southampton youngster Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

But who is this double barrelled hot-shot? Here's MirrorFootball's Isabelle Michalski and Jon Sutton with your need to know guide.

1) Chamberlain was born on August 15, 1993 in Portsmouth but has been with Southampton since 2000. He joined the youth squad at the age of seven after his dad, former Saints coach and one time Stoke City and Portsmouth star Mark Chamberlain, arranged a trial for him.

2) He made his first team debut on the March 2, 2010, coming off the bench against Huddersfield Town, to help a the Saints to a 5-0 victory. He was just 16 years and 199 days old when he came on which made him the club's second youngest player ever, only beaten by Arsenal star Theo Walcott.

3) He followed that up by scoring on his full first team debut at St Mary's in a 2-0 win over AFC Bournemouth in the Carling Cup just days before his 17th birthday.

4) Just a week later he signed a three year professional contract with the club. "I'm delighted to have signed," he said. "I've been working towards this since I was seven when I started at the club, so I'm glad it's finally come round." Since then he established himself as a first team regular, with 38 appearances already this season. He also has 10 goals to his name.

5) He is 5ft 11in tall and is an agile midfielder with a good touch, an impressive turn of pace and an eye for goal who club insiders rate in the same bracket as former Saints star Theo Walcott.

6) He started out playing centre midfield but switched to the wing for the first team last season, not that he seems to mind. "I've always played as a centre midfielder, but recently I've been playing out wide and I like it there. To be honest I don't really mind where I play, I'm happy to play anywhere as long as I'm involved," he said.

8) After a healthy 10 goals notched up in his first full season with the Saints he was named in the League One Team of the Year for the 2010-11 season, alongside former Gunner Ian Wright's son, Bradley Wright-Phillips.

8) His talents have already been recognised by the England youth coaches and he has been selected for successive England youth squads since joining the U18s last year. In February, he was promoted to the U21 squad and made his introduction in a 1-0 loss to Italy on February 8 this year.

9) As well as Arsenal, Premier League rivals Liverpool, Manchester United and Fulham have also shown an interest in the youngster, although his dad Mark was very vocal in his support of a move to the Gunners: "To develop at a place like Arsenal can’t be a bad thing. In my eyes, I’d like him to go there as soon as possible, and continue his development.”

10) As you may have guessed from his name, the young star is a relative of Neville Chamberlain, but sadly not the Hitler-appeasing, piece-of-paper-holding ex-Prime Minister. Alex is in fact the nephew of his less famous namesake, the journeyman ex-Port Vale and Stoke forward.

Check out the videos below to see some of his best moments for Saints.