Granit Xhaka has spoken openly about his major fallout with Arsenal fans at the Emirates Stadium back in 2019.
During Arsenal’s 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace in October 2019, Xhaka experienced the lowest moment of his career.
After Unai Emery subbed the midfielder off, who was Arsenal’s captain at the time, he was booed by the Emirates crowd, generating an unacceptable reaction.
It was one of the ugliest scenes the Emirates has ever seen as Xhaka roused the crowd and pulled his shirt off before throwing it on the floor.
The Switzerland international was stripped of captaincy, but somehow, he turned things around.
Granit Xhaka lifts the lid on Arsenal fallout in 2019
At the time of Xhaka’s fallout at Arsenal, the midfielder was at a point of no return, as fans were furious.
Mikel Arteta’s arrival soon after changed everything for the Swiss star, who managed to rebuild the trust lost with supporters, but the incident will forever hang over the 33-year-old.
After the game, Emery said Xhaka was ‘devastated’ and speaking to The Athletic six years later, the Sunderland star branded it the ‘worst day of his life’.
At first, Arsene Wenger’s 2016 signing described the situation as merely a ‘misunderstanding’, which he immediately admitted he’d massively downplayed.
“It was bigger than that, absolutely, for sure. I don’t need to lie about it; everyone knows the story. I still don’t know what exactly happened this day and why, let’s say that.”
Xhaka revealed that he had his bags packed and had a contract on the table from another club, but Arteta changed his mind.
“Mikel had two conversations with me, and he convinced me to stay, to give me another chance,” he told The Athletic.
“He wanted to show me that I am in the right place. From this day, I just had the feeling that every word he told me in this first conversation, everything was exactly like he said.
“That’s why I say that in 2019, when Mikel came, he changed me completely, as a human being, on the pitch, outside the pitch.”
It was high praise for Arteta, who ensured that the midfielder, who was only in his mid-twenties at the time, was able to move forward.
Xhaka acknowledged that his actions on that day were not acceptable, but maintained that the way the Arsenal fans treated him was extremely damaging.
“I was prepared for everything, but I wasn’t prepared for 2019 and 60,000 people to be against me. For this, I was not prepared. It was the worst day of my life, in football, but it was also the best day of my life.”
So much changed for Xhaka on that day, but with hindsight on his side, the veteran midfielder is now able to look back on it and recognise the positives it delivered.
When did Xhaka return to Arsenal after his incident?
The 2019/20 season was terrible for Xhaka, but with Arteta’s help, he turned it all around to become the player that he is today.
It did, understandably, take some time for him to return to the pitch to represent Arsenal.
That being said, it wasn’t as long as some might’ve anticipated, as 35 days after the incident, Xhaka started for Arsenal in the Premier League.
The difference was that Emery was gone, with Freddie Ljungberg at the helm as interim manager.
It’s been an incredible resurgence for Xhaka, allowing him to leave Arsenal in 2023 as a hero rather than a villain.
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