- Swiss star fell out with fans
- Wanted to move on
- Now a cult hero in north London
WHAT HAPPENED? The Swiss midfielder suffered a very public falling-out with Gunners supporters back in 2019 when finding himself booed from the field during a Premier League meeting with Crystal Palace. There appeared to be no way back for him at that point, with a transfer elsewhere considered to be a formality, but the combative 30-year-old was talked around by his current boss and is now fast becoming a cult hero at Emirates Stadium.
WHAT THEY SAID: Reflecting on his infamous blast at Arsenal supporters and how he worked his way back into favour, Xhaka has told BBC Sport: “Of course after that I had one option, which was to leave because it was too much for me. People that were there supporting me for the first three years, today or tomorrow they were not with you. How I dealt with that? In the moment I was so strong. I don’t want to go back and feel the same pain I had. But I was very strong.
“I was very, very close [to leaving]. When I say that, it was like I only had to take my stuff and leave the door. Mikel was the guy who stopped me leaving. I had a good conversation with him, I had never met him before. I told him from the first meeting we had ‘I want to leave’. It was not against him, but the story that happened here, I can’t play again with that shirt.”
THE BIGGER PICTURE: Xhaka, with three goals to his name this season, added on his remarkable turnaround in north London: “I knew myself, and with Mikel and his team, that I can turn things around. I prepared myself for that. I’m not here because my dad is a coach and he is picking his son all the time, I think I have the quality to be a good player for this football club. I want to give something back. Football is not all about going up, you have to fall down sometimes.”
IN THREE PHOTOS:
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GettyDID YOU KNOW? Arsenal have won nine of their 10 Premier League games this season (L1), their best-ever start to a top-flight campaign. The Gunners haven’t drawn any of their last 27 Premier League games, with only four sides ever having a longer such run – Bolton 28 (ending December 2011), Man City 30 (September 2021), Man City 31 (August 2019) and Tottenham 32 (February 2019).
WHAT NEXT FOR XHAKA? Arsenal find themselves top of the Premier League table through 10 games in 2022-23, with nine wins and 27 points collected, and they will be back in domestic action on Sunday when taking in a trip to Southampton.
