Have you ever asked yourself, why Arsenal sold Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain after seven years at the North London club? Why did he have to leave the club in August 2017 to join Liverpool football club that was almost at the same form as Arsenal at the time?
Well, from our findings, it was discovered that the reason that led Oxlade-Chamberlain to leave Arsenal in 2017 for €38 million can be said to be multi-facet. Initially, the speculation was that the 27-year-old center-midfielder left Arsenal because he believed that the club could not win a league title.
And for a fact, the situation was looking like a reality because since Oxlade-Chamberlain joined Arsenal in 2011, he only succeeded in winning three FA Cups and three Community Shields. There was no hope of winning the Premier League nor the UEFA Champions League because the Gunners hardly make it into the top four.
However, in April 2020, Oxlade-Chamberlain said in an interview that he didn’t leave Arsenal because he didn’t believe that the club would win a major title, he decided to leave because he was not playing in the position that he liked which is the center-midfield role.
The England international revealed that he was always made to play at the wings at Arsenal which he didn’t enjoy and Liverpool came with a promise that the club would give him the center-midfield role. According to Oxlade-Chamberlain, he left Arsenal for Liverpool because of this promise.
He said: “I wouldn’t say I wanted to leave Arsenal because I didn’t believe we could win. I just didn’t believe I was going to be able to play where I wanted to play and that was it…
“I feel a lot of my best performances for Arsenal came in midfield but I never played consistently in that position.
“The first game of that season I switched with Hector [Bellerin]. In the first game I played on the left [wing-back], he played on the right, and in the second game, we switched.
“I thought ‘I’ve got to take the risk, I’ve got to take the chance. I don’t want to look back at the end and think I didn’t try.”
Contrary to Oxlade-Chamberlain’s submission, a former goalkeeper of Liverpool football club, Chris Kirkland, said in an interview in November 2020 that Arsenal allowed Oxlade-Chamberlain to leave the club because he was always prone to injuries.
Kirkland however noted that Liverpool made a good deal by signing the former Gunners who he described as an “exceptional player”.
“We’ve seen him score goals and had some horrendous luck with injuries,” Kirkland told FootballFanCast.
“I mean, if he was fit, Arsenal would never have sold him for one thing you know. They sold him because he couldn’t stay fit. But for me, he’s an exceptional player and I’d love to see him stay fit.”
Based on the submission of the Former Liverpool goalkeeper, one can agree that Arsenal allowed Oxlade-Chamberlain to leave the club because of persistent cases of injuries.
If not because of injuries, the England international would have recorded more appearances than the 198 appearances he recorded for the club in over 6 seasons. In those seasons, he scored a total of 20 goals and provided 32 assists before he left Arsenal.
How is Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain doing at Liverpool
Just like how the former Liverpool goalkeeper Chris Kirkland described Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain as an “exceptional goalkeeper”, that is how the English footballer has been since he joined the Merseyside club in August 2017.
In less than three years at the club, he has achieved what he could not achieve for seven years at Arsenal. For instance, at the end of the 2018-2019 season, he was opportune to be part of a Liverpool team that won the UEFA Champions League, Super Cup, and FIFA Club World. At the end of the 2019-2020 season, he crowned the success with Liverpool’s first Premier League title in 30 years.
Though Oxlade-Chamberlain has made a total of 87 appearances so far for Liverpool with 13 goals and 10 assists, injuries have not allowed him to fully establish himself at the club.
Besides injuries, the England international has had to battle with Jordan Henderson, Naby Keita, Georginio Wijnaldum, and Thiago Alcantara for a place in the center-midfield of Liverpool. It has gotten so bad for Oxlade-Chamberlain that he has not made an appearance for Liverpool this season (2020-2021 season) due to a knee injury he sustained in pre-season training.
🤩 THE OX 🤩
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) August 15, 2020
On his birthday, enjoy some of @Alex_OxChambo's best bits from a big season 👌 pic.twitter.com/N9kMZdhMjz
