Although most extracurricular activities were cancelled in the past week for the Arsenal squad, with Sunday's critical contest to settle the final Champions League positions looming, the club's annual charity ball requires the presence of all the players, in black tie, to mingle with guests and to pull out their credit cards to help the auction to go with a bang. It is light relief of sorts. Robin van Persie and Gervinho engage in a bidding war for a signed Thierry Henry boot (sold to the man with 30 league goals this season for £13,000). Per Mertesacker wins the chance to take his kids on a VIP experience at a wildlife park. Jack Wilshere goes home with a professional photography session for the family. Wojciech Szczesny buys an "ultimate Wag package". Aaron Ramsey has just been outbid for a cooking class with Raymond Blanc. Unsurprisingly, none of the players are particularly active for the lot to have dinner with four friends and Arsène Wenger. It sells for £20,000.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is being entertained by a magician giving a demonstration of trickery when he has a tap on the shoulder to tell him it is time to fulfil this particular media obligation. This bright-eyed 18-year-old excuses himself from the conjuring, ambles over, and introduces himself with a friendly embrace. He sits down, with a huge, blown-up photograph of Dennis Bergkamp's eyes watching over him, to recount a year in which he has been catapulted from League One on to some of football's grandest stages. In half an hour of conversation he does not even pause for a single "ummm". Even for a veteran speaker that takes some doing.

Oxlade-Chamberlain presents himself with the kind of candid and confident manner rarely seen in a teenaged English footballer. He seems like the kind of boy that takes in everything that is going on around him and quickly computes what is worth saving and what to delete.

This has been a season of intensive learning for him. He beams as he says that he has loved every minute. Really? Even a debut that filled him with paradoxical emotions? When he stood on the touchlines at Old Trafford in August, Arsenal had been enduring a troubling afternoon and were losing 3-1, but what happened next, as the scoreline segued into an 8-2 mauling, was a form of shell shock.

"It all went pretty fast after I came on," he says. "Obviously I was delighted to finally get my debut. And with it being away from the Emirates there could be no better place than Old Trafford. In that sense it was a big moment in my career. The downside was that we lost the game and lost it in the fashion we did. That was the overriding feeling for the rest of the day. The rest of the week even. We were all devastated and shocked. The feelings that we had that day drove us to never have them again if possible. To have that sort of experience so early on in my career, I took a lot away from that. I think we have all become stronger since then."

Within a month of Old Trafford, Oxlade-Chamberlain was due his next tasters in the first team. He marked his full debut in the Carling Cup, and then in the Champions League eight days later, with audaciously struck goals. He was thrilled. "That feeling pushed me. "You feel like you do belong. It made me realise I am capable of it but I also realised I still had a long way to go. It made me go away and want to work harder."

That attitude stems from his family background. After his first European goal his father, the former England winger Mark Chamberlain, told him: "Well played, good goal, we'll talk about the defending later."

Much has been made of his father's guidance in terms of his career, but his mother, Wendy Oxlade, also deserves some recognition. "She's been a massive influence on me, particularly when I was growing up," Oxlade-Chamberlain says.

"When my dad was still playing he was away for five years on and off so it just used to be me and my mum at home until my little brother came along when I was five. I am really close to my mum. She always made me do my school and make sure I got all my grades. She is a physiotherapist, which is a massive help to me so in terms of nutrition she was the one who made sure I was eating all the right food and I can only thank her that she kept me fit and healthy. When I was younger in pre-season she used to take me out running and doing press-ups. She used to do a bit of training with me until I got a bit too quick for her and she had to cut that out. She's been massive."

Talking about his mum is the only time Oxlade-Chamberlain says anything to remind you he is still a teenager. He is patently embarrassed by Wendy's enthusiasm on match days. "She comes to every home game and shouts — as much as I hate her shouting and cheering," he says, pulling a face. "I hear stories from people in the crowd about when they see her she can't watch. After in the players lounge she is all excited."

Right now, like everybody connected with Arsenal, or indeed Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United, the excitement gives way to anxiety. Oxlade-Chamberlain is eager to play a part as his team face a nerve-racking assignment at The Hawthorns. He is more than aware of the implications. "That 8-2 defeat at Man United was the turning point for us. From then on we've all stuck together. People have been on our backs quite a lot but the way we pulled through has got us to the position we are now. We have a massive game at West Brom to finish off the job." Has anyone been drumming home the significance of finishing above Spurs? "I've got the picture by now."

Arsenal need to rediscover the rallying instincts they have needed at various stages of the season. Another memorable lesson for Oxlade-Chamberlain came at San Siro, where he and his team-mates were embarrassed and outclassed. But it was the reaction that struck a chord with the youngster. "It's my first year of Premier and Champions League football and to see us lose 4-0 away at Milan and then hear the boys really ready for the fight in the second leg, really believing we could go through, was a massive thing for me."

Oxlade-Chamberlain has taken most of the season's emotionally fuelled experiences in his stride. Even the moment when he was in the eye of the storm, as his controversial substitution, making way for Andrey Arshavin in a home game against Manchester United, led to mutinous chants against Wenger. "It was a bit surreal," he says. "In one way it was nice to see people were supporting the progress I am trying to make. For me I was just getting substituted like any other player in their careers. All managers make decisions and sometimes they are right and sometimes people say they are wrong. I 100% agree with everything the boss does. He's a clever man. If he asked me to play left-back I would happily."

Back at the charity ball, Wenger is up on the stage delivering an impassioned speech about the work of the newly launched Arsenal Foundation, which the club hope will help young people off the pitch to develop. There is a history of helping those in need at the club. They put on a match 100 years ago in aid of the Titanic disaster fund. This week they raised more than £250,000 for disadvantaged young people.

Oxlade-Chamberlain recalls going out with his father into the kind of projects in need of assistance: "My dad had a spell when he came out of coaching doing some work with underprivileged children on quite a rough council estate in Southampton to help the kids and take them out to places. I used to go along with him. I used to play football with them, mess about with them. I was only 13 or 14 and became good friends with them. They all had ambitions of doing different things."

He just does not seem the type to get big headed. Last weekend, his friend Adam Lallana from his Southampton days tweeted about a meeting with Oxlade-Chamberlain, "still down to earth as ever". It will stand him in good stead as the expectations and attention grows. Such has been his impact for Arsenal, he can expect next season to make gains on the 26 appearances and four goals he has managed so far. He is still adjusting to the fact people expect him to be something he isn't. He affects an astonished voice in imitation of the fans who meet him and say: "Oh, you are actually quite a nice guy." He creases up with laughter. "What did they think I was going to be? At first they don't know how to speak to me and then I speak normally and they realise we are normal people."

The whirlwind that has been the year in the life of Oxlade-Chamberlain is epitomised by a story he tells of one of his last performances for his old club. It was late July and the speculation surrounding an impending transfer from St Mary's to the Emirates was being vigorously stirred.

He was 17 years old at the time and played half a game as Southampton took on West Brom in a pre-season friendly. He picked up an injury. It had been noted by the opposition manager. Mindful of a big deal that was on the line, Roy Hodgson sought out Oxlade-Chamberlain in the tunnel after the game to find out if he was OK.

It was a thoughtful touch from the man who is now England manager and, if the pair happen to pass each other again on Sunday inside the bowels of The Hawthorns, they can reflect on how much has changed since their fleeting meeting. They will no doubt get to know each other better in future, sooner or later.