Xhaka exclusive: Staying at Arsenal, leaving & being ‘calmer’ at Leverkusen

Anyone who's ever visited the unassuming hometown of pharmaceutical giant Bayer will agree that Leverkusen (population: around 170,000) is quite different to London. But there are some similarities, starting with the weather.

“I'm used to it,” Granit Xhaka smiles when The Athletic mentions the dismal greyness hanging over the German club's BayArena stadium.

Xhaka with The Athletic's Raphael Honigstein

On the other side of the boardroom window, by contrast to the sky overhead, golden beams from a hundred artificial suns are nourishing the pitch. Xhaka and his Leverkusen team-mates have been lighting up this place throughout the season with their football too, delighting supporters with a thrilling mix of durability and beauty, precision-engineered by a young, uncompromising Spanish coach.

With half the season gone, they are top of the table, ahead of wealthier, more established sides and could well go all the way in multiple competitions. Sound familiar? But there's one more common denominator that links this corner of western Germany and (north) London, perhaps the most startling one: Xhaka was, and is, at the heart of everything that has gone right for Arsenal and Leverkusen over the past few months.

Xhaka takes on Bayern Munich's Harry Kane (Lars Baron/Getty Images)

Since moving back to German football in the summer after seven years in England, the former Borussia Monchengladbach midfielder has played a huge role in turning a side who had already started making waves under Xabi Alonso's leadership last season into a veritable winning machine, going 24 games unbeaten in all competitions to start this one.

His impeccably composed and authoritative performances have run counter to his erstwhile image as a hot-headed irritant