Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain: ‘Newcastle United tried to frustrate us’

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has admitted that Newcastle United’s ploy to ‘frustrate’ Liverpool almost paid off in Saturday evening’s meeting at Anfield.

The Reds had to remain patient before finding a 40th-minute breakthrough via a Mohamed Salah strike, which came after some positive play by Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Sadio Mane went on to double Liverpool’s lead and effectively kill Newcastle off with a little over half an hour still to play on Merseyside, but the man of the match award was given to England international Oxlade-Chamberlain for his industrious display.

Speaking to BT Sport after the 2-0 win, the 24-year-old said: “Rafa Benitez’s side are always well organised. We worked all week on ways to break them down. It was getting frustrating in the first half but in the end we managed to get in behind. It was an easy finish in the end.

“Mo Salah is on fire. He has been doing it all season. Sadio Mane has been brilliant too and Bobby (Roberto Firmino) does a lot of hard work that sometimes goes unnoticed.

“We are in a good moment. If we can keep our attitude at 100% we know we have the quality that can hurt teams. We need to keep that momentum now. [Jordan] Henderson is the best at staying angry on the pitch. Players like myself and Sadio are smilers!”

Oxlade-Chamberlain has now assisted five Premier League goals for Liverpool since arriving from Arsenal last summer, while also scoring a few of his own.