ALEX Oxlade-Chamberlain received his first minutes in an Arsenal shirt in eight years on Saturday when he appeared in a secret friendly.
An Arsenal U21 side played one from Manchester United, but the Gunners’ line-up had some surprising additions, per reports from Nathan Salt.
Injury-plagued striker Gabriel Jesus got minutes as he looks to get back to the peak of his powers on the pitch.
Arsenal wonderkid Max Dowman played after being left out of Arsenal’s squad to face Aston Villa, and even got on the scoresheet.
But the most surprising among the names on the pitch was that of former Liverpool and England star Oxlade-Chamberlain.
The veteran midfielder has been training with the North London outfit since the beginning of November after his career suffered a downturn in recent years.
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The 32-year-old signed for the club as a teenager from Southampton in 2011.
He would go on to make almost 200 appearances and become the club’s youngest Champions League scorer at the time before moving to Liverpool for a fee of £35million in 2017.
He left the club in 2023 to spend a two-year stint with Turkish giants Besiktas, but found his contract terminated by former United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in August.
He returned home to the UK following the blow, finally moving in with his fiancee, Little Mix star Perrie Edwards.
The couple have never lived together in their eight-year relationship, despite the fact they even share a child together, and announced in September that they are expecting another.
Now Oxlade-Chamberlain is staying sharp as he awaits the next stage of his career, and is currently available as a free agent, should any clubs choose to take a punt on some Premier League experience.
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