Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is keen to take advice from those around him as he strives to nail down a place in the Arsenal team this season.

The midfielder has had an incredibly inconsistent start to a campaign which began with high hopes.

In Monday’s press conference the midfielder manager Arsène Wenger saying that the 22-year-old must start believing in himself more. Oxlade-Chamberlain spoke about the impact of training and playing with Alexis Sánchez ahead of Tuesday night’s game against Olympiacos and the Englishman knows he has to start playing with more freedom and belief.

“It’s what my dad says as well [as Wenger] so there might be a little bit of a trend here,” Oxlade-Chamberlain confessed to the media at London Colney. “I’m quite critical of myself and I try to demand quite high standards of myself. Sometimes maybe that can work in a negative fashion. That’s something that I need to work on. Self-belief is obviously a massive part of the game. I might need to start showing that I believe in myself a bit more around [the boss].”

The midfielder has started five times this season and most recently impressed in the League Cup win over Tottenham, which saw him more positively involved following disappointing games against Newcastle United and Dinamo Zagreb.

Now 22, it’s time for him to kick on and develop, and he knows Wenger’s comments were fair.

“I did see them and I chuckled because my dad says that to me a lot.”

Oxlade-Chamberlain added, “It’s a valid point and we’ve just been talking about Alexis there, and that’s someone who has massive self-belief and he shows that every week.

“Quite often that results in positive performance with good end products and good results. It’s definitely something for me to take on board and look to improve on.”

A start against Olympiacos may be coming his way and, if it does, it provides a huge opportunity to start impressing again.