**Sunderland will host Arsenal on Saturday, November 8, at the Stadium of Light. On the eve of the match, Granit Xhaka spoke about Mikel Arteta.**
Xhaka, 33, arrived to revolutionize the midfield of the Wearside club during the summer and quickly earned the trust of coach Regis Le Bris.
The Swiss became the new captain of the team and has been fundamental for [Sunderland](https://www.si.com/soccer/sunderland) to be positioned in fourth place in the Premier League.
The Cats will face Arsenal on the occasion of matchday 11 of the league, and before the match, Xhaka spoke about the Gunners' coach and about how he helped him improve as a player.
The veteran midfielder revealed that before Arteta arrived at the Emirates Stadium, he had everything ready to go to another club, but the Spanish coach changed his stance.
"When Mikel came, he had a very open conversation with me," Xhaka said in an interview for [The Athletic](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6776323/2025/11/06/xhaka-sunderland-arsenal-exclusive/). "My luggage was already done. I was ready to leave. I already had a contract on the table from another football club."
The Sunderland captain said that Arteta changed him on and off the pitch, helping him correct key details like receiving unnecessary bookings.
"He changed me completely - as a human being, on the pitch, outside the pitch. I didn’t have doubts about myself, about the quality, about how professional I needed to be - because I was - but there were these little mistakes, yellow cards, red cards. Silly red cards, where you don’t need to... but Mikel, he changed it," Xhaka added.
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