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Former Liverpool and Arsenal midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain says that while he enjoyed his time with the Gunners, it was at Anfield where he reached the peak of his career.
Oxlade-Chamberlain, who has been training with Arsenal lately but is currently without a club after leaving the Turkish side Besiktas in the summer, moved to Liverpool for a fee of around $47 million (£35 million) in 2017 and remains the North London side's biggest ever transfer sale.
"I was happiest, in a sense of life, at Arsenal," Oxlade-Chamberlain explained on The Fozcast. "I had a lot of friends — I had a lot of mates from back home who were at university, didn’t have kids, didn’t have wives, so they were always coming to the games.
"We had a good group of young players at Arsenal — me, Danny Welbeck, Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs, Emmanuel Eboue, Aaron Ramsey, Theo Walcott, Carl Jenkinson.
"These sorts of lads were all young, doing the same thing, at the same time, and just loving it and having a great time.
"But from a football aspect, the couple of seasons at Liverpool were just unbelievable. I was playing with a group of lads to achieve something special, and when you achieve that something special, you realize, ‘This is what it’s all about’.
"The 18/19 season and then the year we won the league, 19/20, those were, from a footballing point of view, the best years I’ve had in a group of lads that I saw every day working hard to achieve something.
"The fans there, everything about that place was just amazing and special. It was the happiest [I was] but I had times at Liverpool where it was the toughest.
"Especially in the last year or two, the year I was injured in 2018, and then the last two where I was fighting to play and then not playing as much.
"From a lifestyle point of view and not thinking too much, Arsenal was unbelievable. An amazing club, a great place to be, great players, and you’re in London — it’s great fun. Then that couple of years at Liverpool was just amazing."
Oxlade-Chamberlain also insisted that he shouldn't be viewed as being injury-prone, which is something that has followed him throughout his career. At Liverpool, his best form was halted by injury issues.
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"The whole injury misconception thing has haunted me for years," Oxlade-Chamberlain continued. "When I did my ACL at Liverpool, that was in 2018. I can remember going into interviews in 2021, and people still asking me about it.
"With injuries, when you’re at a big club and you’ve got a bit of a profile, and you’re playing for England, maybe your injuries are a bit more high-profile, and everyone knows about them.
"I always felt like whenever I got injured, it was always a bad one. I didn’t get many hamstring injuries or anything like that — it was always a knee [injury] that kept me out for a spell of time.
"At Liverpool, when I did my ACL, I was out for a year with that. When I came back, I didn’t go straight back into the team. I spent six months on the periphery, coming off the bench here and there, but I didn’t play much.
"At that point [in people’s minds], it’s almost like your injury is extended. I look at Virg [Virgil van Dijk] when he did his, and it was a horrendous injury as well.
"He’s an amazing player and an amazing athlete, and he could physically cope with it. As soon as he was fit, he played, and it was almost like the injury was squashed.
"In my position, there are eight midfielders, and we’re all battling for places. If you have six months out, good luck getting your place back.
"You come back and you’re ready to play — I always felt I didn’t get put back in quickly enough to squash the injury concerns, even though I’m feeling good and fine, people want to see you string 20 games together before they think your injury is done."
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