Everyone would soon discover just how scared Pep Guardiola was of the famed Liverpool forward trio Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane.
But when Manchester City were preparing to travel to Anfield in their Champions League quarter-final first leg five years ago, there was another attacking player also occupying the mind of the Catalan.
“Scoring goals away is so important and we are going to try to score goals," said Guardiola. "But we cannot deny three people running up front plus Chamberlain in the middle."
READ MORE: FA release contents of 'lengthy letter' Liverpool sent about Mohamed Salah treatment
READ MORE: Jurgen Klopp hinted at surprise Liverpool transfer last January
For good reason was the City boss mindful of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. When the teams had met at Anfield in the Premier League a few months earlier, it was Oxlade-Chamberlain who lit the blue touchpaper on an extraordinary afternoon by scoring the first goal in Liverpool's memorable 4-3 triumph with a thrusting run from midfield and shot into the bottom corner.
Sure enough, the midfielder was it again, adding to Salah's opener with a blistering drive into the Kop goal as Liverpool registered a 3-0 win. And Oxlade-Chamberlain was responsible for initiating the swift counter-attack in the return leg that ultimately allowed Salah to draw the Reds level on the night at 1-1 and effectively end any chance of a City comeback.
While the whispers had persisted for several months, eyebrows were nevertheless raised when Liverpool snapped up Oxlade-Chamberlain from Arsenal for £35million shortly before deadline day in August 2017, the player having entered the final year of his contract at the Gunners.
Where the new signing would fit into Jurgen Klopp's line-up was the question, and for the first few months of his Liverpool career Oxlade-Chamberlain spent much of his time on the bench, making his debut as a substitute in the 5-0 Premier League thrashing at City and given only seven starts before Christmas.
“A new start is very often a kind of relief, that’s how it is," said Klopp as Oxlade-Chamberlain struggled to make an impact early on. "You are in a situation with your old club – and I don’t say this about Alex specifically – and you accept it and it is difficult to make the next step. I thought it made complete sense for Alex to change club and to come here. He has settled in perfectly. He knows the situation."
Indeed, the New Year saw opportunity knock as Oxlade-Chamberlain became more regular in the XI, including both legs of the Champions League clash with City. But two weeks after that famous night at the Etihad, his world came crashing down when suffering a serious injury to his right knee just 18 minutes into the semi-final first leg against Roma as he attempted a challenge on Roma's Aleksandar Kolarov.
It's worth remembering just how bad the injury was. “An injury within an injury within an injury,” said Oxlade-Chamberlain, who tore his anterior cruciate ligament, ruptured his lateral collateral ligament too and damaged his medial ligament was damaged while his lateral hamstring tendon had been torn clean off the bone.
The road back to fitness, then, was long and at times painful. Oxlade-Chamberlain didn't play for more than a year, but his two brief substitute outings at the end of the 2018/19 campaign - totalling just 19 minutes - was sufficient to earn a place on the bench in the Champions League final against Tottenham Hotspur and subsequently pick up a winners' medal.
Liverpool's faith in the player was such that, despite the lack of minutes in the previous 15 months, he agreed a new contract in August 2019. "We all know Alex’s story since he came to the club, and yes there have been disappointments as well as highs, but what has impressed me and everyone is his attitude to dealing with setbacks and his character," said Klopp at the time. “That’s why none of us were ever in any doubt about him fighting his way back in the way he did. Now he is no longer injured, he is fit and he can kick on and show once again just how good he is."
Oxlade-Chamberlain had already taken a significant step with his first start in 16 months when featuring in the 2-1 Premier League win at former club Southampton on the second weekend of the 2019/20 season. He missed only four games through injury that season, and it's easily forgotten just how regular he was on the pitch as Liverpool romped to a first championship in 30 years.
The midfielder appeared in 30 of 38 Premier League games - 17 as a starter - and featured in every game during the second half of the campaign, contributing four goals in the top-flight and a career-best eight in all competitions. His versatility meant he appeared on both flanks and in a central midfield role, and he started the UEFA Super Cup success over Chelsea and both the FIFA Club World Cup semi-final win over Monterrey and final triumph against Flamengo.
"I think that season when I look back to it from my point of view, I'm always proud of what I was able to do coming back from that injury and basically going the whole season uninjured and being available at all times, but I think there was probably a bit of hangover from that injury," said Oxlade-Chamberlain.
"In terms of myself, I don't remember a consistent enough spell where I felt like I was on fire. I think it was a good season in terms of what I'd come back from to get back to that level and play and be back away with England and stuff as well. But I knew there was more to come, more goals and just more consistent performances."
But just as Oxlade-Chamberlain was primed to kick on, so he was once again struck down by injury, sustaining a knee problem during a challenge in training in pre-season that kept him out until December. And even with the Reds struggling for form, the arrivals of Thiago Alcantara and Diogo Jota made game time even more difficult, Oxlade-Chamberlain starting just two games and having to wait until the penultimate match at Burnley for his solitary goal.
Injury-free and with renewed desire, Oxlade-Chamberlain forced his way into the starting line-up for the opening game of the next season at Norwich, although he then featured for only eight minutes in the next six Premier League games. That, though, made way for regular involvement, featuring in 14 of the next 15 top-flight games, all six Champions League group games and the early rounds of the League Cup.
He was enjoying the moment. "A player like me who sometimes does risky things like run with the ball and drive with the ball, rhythm helps that," said Oxlade-Chamberlain. "Rhythm helps all players, but especially for me the way I play. With game time and more games, it all becomes a bit more natural and I don't have to think about these things as much.”
And his form had not passed unnoticed. “It’s pretty much the best Oxlade since I am here,” said Klopp. “I know he was more spectacular in moments, scored wonderful goals against City and really good goals for us, but it is a completely new quality now – calming the game down, being not only the sprinter with the ball or the shooter but being involved in all the things on the pitch. It is a massive step. I am really happy with Ox in the moment and hopefully it stays like this.”
Oxlade-Chamberlain also answered the call in the New Year when, with Mohamed Salah at the Africa Cup of Nations, he deputised on the right flank and scored in wins over Brentford and Crystal Palace. The latter game, though, would mark a turning point in his Liverpool career, with the return of Salah, Naby Keita and Sadio Mane from AFCON and the immediate impact of new signing Luis Diaz meaning Oxlade-Chamberlain played only three more times that season, and failed to make the bench for seven of the last eight Premier League games and the FA Cup final as the Reds chased the quadruple.
Expectations, then, were that the player would move on that summer as he prepared to enter the final 12 months of his contract. West Ham United were among many interested clubs. Oxlade-Chamberlain, though, stayed put, and showed glimpses of quality in pre-season before another untimely injury setback, sustaining a hamstring problem against Palace in Singapore that saw him sidelined for three months.
He returned to make four successive Premier League starts over the Christmas and New Year period - netting in the 3-1 loss at Brentford - but making the matchday squad only twice in the last 16 league games indicated Klopp had already started to focus more on players who will be at the club next season.
It's somewhat fitting Oxlade-Chamberlain perhaps made his final Liverpool appearance when they were last up against Manchester City, emerging from the bench for the closing 20 minutes of the 4-1 Premier League defeat in April. His time with the Reds had come full circle against the team who had earlier felt the full force of his undoubted talent.
A hugely popular member of the squad, his was an Anfield career ultimately hampered by too many serious injuries. But as both Klopp and Guardiola knew all too well, with better fortune Oxlade-Chamberlain's time at Liverpool could have worked out rather differently. Even then, the medal haul indicates both the player and club made the right choice.
READ NEXT
Jurgen Klopp hinted at surprise Liverpool transfer last January
Man Utd new owners will have problem FSG spent £195m to solve
Man City have just sent Liverpool unwanted reminder after Champions League win
Kieran Trippier makes Newcastle Champions League admission amid Liverpool race
Carragher can't resist cheeky Alex Ferguson dig after Sheff Wed comeback
