Ox loving Celtic 'Pressure cooker'
Celtic has reigned supreme in the Scottish Premiership for the last five years, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain wants to keep standards high.
Celtic midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain feels the "pressure cooker" environment in Glasgow will bring out his best football in his first full season in Scotland.
The former Arsenal and Liverpool man joined Celtic as a free agent in February, having left Turkish side Besiktas last August.
He had a major impact in the closing weeks of the season as Martin O'Neill's men pipped Hearts to the title on the final day, denying the Edinburgh club their first crown since 1960.
Oxlade-Chamberlain marked his Scottish Premiership debut with a stoppage-time winner against Livingstone and ended the campaign with two goals in nine outings in the competition.
Despite Oxlade-Chamberlain only starting five times, only five players created more chances for Celtic in the top flight than he did (nine) between his arrival and the end of 2025-2026.
On the eve of the Bhoys' 2026-27 opener against Dundee, the 32 year-old said the high demands at Celtic Park are something he welcomes.
"When the opportunity to come here last year came up, the fact that it was going to be a challenge, I really enjoyed that," Oxlade-Chamberlain said.
"The idea was I could give some experience or, at times, a few moments of quality that could help the lads go on to achieve what we did. The way it ended up was dreamland stuff.
"That's what I thrive off. I'm fortunate enough to have been in teams where there is an expectation to win but also, at the same time, the reality is there's a lot of really, really good teams that make it really hard to win. I thrive in that pressure cooker.
"That's exactly the same mentality that's here. I definitely need that and, especially now, I think that helps me get the most out of myself at this point in my career.
"Having that and having the hunger and young players pushing and striving to be the best they can and go and win as much as they can, that's massive."
Celtic has already seen its likely title rival Rangers slip up on the opening matchday of the season, having drawn 1-1 with Dundee United in Derek McInnes's first game in charge on Friday.
With Celtic considered favourite to extend its run of dominance over the Scottish top flight to six years, Oxlade-Chamberlain is raring to go after a full pre-season.
"This is probably actually my first proper pre-season in three years," he said. "You still get that same buzz, and I'm still running around with a few 16 or 17 year-olds who are excited. So you feed off that energy, and you feel the same age as always.
"Without pre-season, you can never 100 oercent know if you're fully fit or durable enough to last the whole season. We'll have to see early on how I'm feeling. But now, I feel great."
