Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain On How Wenger Left Him “Devastated” Before The FA Cup Final In 2014

By The Editor
on 30th March 2017

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain narrates FA Cup heartache in 2014…

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is the latest player to go through his ‘Arsenal Albums’ and the midfielder revealed an interesting anecdote which took place before the FA Cup final in 2014.

The 23-year-old was arguably the star of our cup run and featured in every round, however, a muscular injury he picked up in April meant that he faced a race against time to be fit for the clash at Wembley.

He subsequently went into overdrive in terms of training to prove to Arsene Wenger that he was ready for the game against Hull City, and thought he’d done enough the week before the final after completing a full training schedule.

However, the squad was revealed the day before the final and Oxlade-Chamberlain’s names was nowhere to be found.

“The boss put the squad up for the final and I wasn’t in it,” The Ox narrated.

“To say I was devasted was an understatement.”

The England international protested the decision with Wenger and convinced the boss to take him as the “19th man”, with the hope of potentially being named on the bench.

That wasn’t to be and The Ox missed out altogether, although he was soon emotionally involved in the game as Hull City went 2-0 up in the opening 10 minutes. The rest, as they say, is history.

Oxlade-Chamberlain would later have a chance to make amends as he made the squad in the following FA Cup final, coming on in the final moments to set up an Olivier Giroud goal.

Check out his story in the video above.

Source: Arsenal