Despite his recent good performances, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was dropped to the bench as Liverpool travelled to his former club, Arsenal.
The midfielder swapped the Emirates for Anfield in the summer for a fee worth £35 million after decided he wanted to further his career elsewhere.
Even though he was very honest during his departure, Oxlade-Chamberlain probably wasn’t expecting a good reception upon his return – and that’s exactly what happened.
With the 24-year-old sitting on the bench, the Arenal fans were heard singing: “Oxlade-Chamberlain, he sits on the bench,” throughout the match.
The England international could only look on as his current club and his former club played up a 3-3 thriller.
And when he was introduced into the action with six minutes remaining, he was met with a chorus of boos.
And those boos were heard every time he went near the ball for the remaining few minutes of the match.
Harsh.
While he didn’t have much impact on the match, Oxlade-Chamberlain can certainly hold his head high for the way he handled himself on his return to north London.
That’s because, at full-time, he went around the pitch to applaud all of his former supporters despite their boos.
And Arsenal fans recognised that and appeared to applaud him back. Nothing like a bit of festive respect.
WATCH: WHAT OXLADE-CHAMBERLAIN DID AT FULL-TIME
Take a look:
Oxlade-Chamberlain got a few boos when he went to North Bank but credit to him he’s gone round to applaud the ground and got some applause back too. And obvs a Klopp hug as well. pic.twitter.com/jpVT7p0QFy
— James Benge (@jamesbenge) December 22, 2017
While Arsenal fans in the stadium started clapping Oxlade-Chamberlain at the final whistle, many on Twitter also had respect for his actions after the game.
What a crazy game that was. And at the end of it all, Oxlade-Chamberlain does a mini-lap of the stadium to applaud the Arsenal fans and they clap him in return. The Christmas spirit has reached north London…
— Jack de Menezes (@JackdeMenezes) December 22, 2017
#ARSLIV Oxlade Chamberlain is the fucking soundest guy. Needed to be brought on earlier. Arsenal never deserved him, thriving at Liverpool now. Good on him for clapping the Arsenal fans despite their embarrassing behaviour.
— dfghj (@ghnbvfre) December 22, 2017
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is so classy man, the guy got the heaviest boos I've heard in a while and he still applauded the Arsenal fans, professional.
— ❄️☃️r🎅🏽🎄 (@CoutinhoCurler) December 22, 2017
WENGER ON SELLING OXLADE-CHAMBERLAIN
Ahead of his return to Arsenal on Friday night, his former manager Arsene Wenger insisted that he never wanted him to leave.
“I didn’t want him to go,” Wenger admitted.
“I offered him a contract to stay, but in the end he decided to go and we just had to try and get the best possible price.
“Look, he had one year to go. At start of the season we had four players with one year to go and I wanted him to extend his contract.
“Yes, he decided to go and we respect that. But at the end of the day I decided to sell one [of the four].”