Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has revealed that despite his success at Liverpool, his time at Arsenal was the happiest period of his life. The English midfielder represented both of the Premier League’s biggest teams early in his career. After coming through Southampton’s youth organization, he moved to Arsenal in 2011, making a total of 198 appearances for the North London club, helping them win the FA Cup three times. In 2017, Oxlade-Chamberlain moved to Liverpool for a fee of £35 million.
His time at Anfield was a huge success with wins in the Premier League, Champions League, League Cup and Club World Cup. The 32-year-old explained on Foscast that while his personal life was better at Arsenal, his professional career was arguably better at Liverpool.
He explained: “[His best time in football]was when he was at Arsenal, the happiest in terms of his life. He had a lot of friends. A lot of friends from his hometown went to university, but he didn’t have kids, he didn’t have a wife, so they always came to the games.
“Arsenal had a good group of young players – myself, Danny Welbeck, Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs, Emmanuel Eboue, Aaron Ramsey, Theo Walcott, Karl Jenkinson – all these players were young, doing the same thing at the same time and just loving it and having a great time.”
“From a football perspective, those few seasons at Liverpool were incredible. I was playing with a group of players to achieve something special, and when you achieve that special thing you realize: ‘This is what it’s all about.’
“The 18/19 season, and the 19/20 season when we won the league, were the best years from a footballing point of view for a group of players who saw every day how hard they worked to achieve something, and we achieved that.
“The fans there, everything about that place was amazing and special. I was the happiest[for me]but it was also the toughest time at Liverpool. Especially in the last year or two, the injury year in 2018 and the last two years, I was fighting to play and I didn’t play as much.”
“Without thinking too much about it, from a lifestyle point of view, Arsenal was an incredible club. Great club, great place, great players and it’s a lot of fun to be in London. And those years at Liverpool were really great.”
In fact, the midfielder returned to Arsenal this week and was offered the opportunity to train with the Gunners to maintain match fitness. He remains a free agent after leaving Besiktas.
