Arsenal new boy Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has revealed his dream of playing like Chelsea legend Gianfranco Zola.

The 17-year-old joined Arsenal after a £15 million move from Southampton, and said to the Sun: "I always liked Zola because he was a smaller player like me.

"He was so good on the ball and could score all sorts of goals. I had his picture on my wall at home.

"He used to have a great partnership going with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and if I could be as good as Zola I'd be very happy indeed.

"I like the small forwards and, obviously, Lionel Messi is the best in the world - in fact he's out of this world.

"I doubt I'll ever be as good as him though."

Oxlade-Chamberlain added: "Dad has his view on things and I will listen but at the end of the day I'm my own person.

"I've never seen much film of him playing - a few clips but there wasn't much TV football back in those days, was there?

"He's got a few caps and medals and man-of-the-match awards knocking around the house just to remind me.

"I've heard he was a good winger who dropped into midfield later in his career.

"People say he was a bit like me as a player in that we both like to take people on.

"But I was a centre-midfielder who turned into a winger last year.

"I was smaller than the others when I got into the first team at Southampton and they thought I'd be better out on the wing because I wasn't physically capable of playing in the middle in a league like League One.

"I'm quite fast so I've just stayed on the wing and I'm not sure what my real position is now. Maybe I'll go back more central when I get older."

He spent the summer with the England U-19 team, and believes that his play was the better for the experience, raving: "We beat Montenegro 1-0, beat Switzerland 3-2 and drew 1-1 with Spain.

"Spain were a brilliant team but they only knocked us out on goal difference.

"I love the England experience. It is great to meet up with all the best players round the country of your age.

"I was with players who were already at Premier League clubs and you could tell the standard just in training.

"Playing against them was a bit different to being up against the players in League One.

"They were a bit sharper and more technical on the ball. In League One you come up against players who are maybe not as talented but they have the experience and age on their side."

He also gave an insight towards the quantum leaps that English football had to make in order to catch up with current World and European champions Spain.

He said: "We do have talent in bundles but the difference is the culture of the game in Spain and the way they've been brought up from a very young age.

"Spain are just Spain, it's hard to explain.

"They played like the senior side, they played like Barcelona - it wore me out chasing it down.

"It doesn't happen overnight to play like that with everyone working in the same way.

"All the boys at the academies in England are capable of passing like that though and the quality some of them have on the ball is top-drawer.

"Josh McEachran is going to be a top, top player.

"The boys are being taught a lot more cultured football and ball manipulation and you will see a lot of good young players coming through.

"It's about putting it all together in a game environment - that's what we have to improve on."

Espnstar.com