Granit Xhaka: The Small Arsène Wenger and Sunderland's Ambition
Granit Xhaka has worked for some of the biggest managerial minds in modern football. Arsène Wenger at Arsenal. Unai Emery. Mikel Arteta. Xabi Alonso at Bayer Leverkusen. Add formative years at Basel and Borussia Mönchengladbach, and you get a midfielder who has seen just about every tactical blueprint Europe can offer.
So when Xhaka draws a comparison, it carries weight.
‘The small Arsène Wenger’
Speaking before Sunderland’s looming showdown with Arsenal, the Swiss captain could not hide his admiration for the man now guiding his career on Wearside – Régis Le Bris.
"I call him like the small Arsene Wenger," Xhaka told TNT Sports. The nickname is affectionate, but it is no throwaway line. It comes loaded with respect.
"As a human being, he's top. He's very calm, he's not a guy who screams, he has all the solutions and tactically, he's amazing. And even for him, to get a new team, now again with new players, I believe is not easy.
"But he showed himself that he is a great manager, he showed himself that he can improve this team, the players. And myself, I'm very thankful that I can have a coach like him."
Le Bris brought Xhaka to the Stadium of Light last summer, prising him from Leverkusen in a statement move that underlined Sunderland’s ambition. It was a signing that said they were not just back in the Premier League to make up the numbers.
They proved it.
In their first season back in the top flight, Xhaka captained Sunderland to a stunning seventh-place finish and a Europa League spot, smashing pre-season predictions and changing the mood around the club almost overnight.
Detail, detail, detail
What separates Le Bris from the other elite coaches Xhaka has known? The Swiss midfielder does not hesitate.
"He’s very detailed. So if he analyses something - not just the opponent, but even us and more the individual meetings - he's very detailed," Xhaka explained. "He goes into details that I haven't seen often in a coach. So every player here has improved over the last 16 months and I think there is still space to improve for everyone."
This is where Le Bris’ influence bites hardest: on the training ground, in the meeting rooms, in those one-to-one conversations that reshape a player’s game. Nothing, Xhaka suggests, escapes his manager’s eye. No movement, no positioning tweak, no lapse in concentration.
The result is a squad that looks sharper, more intelligent, and more adaptable than the one that climbed out of the Championship. And at the centre of it all stands Xhaka.
The standard-bearer
At Sunderland, the armband is more than a symbol for the 31-year-old. It is a responsibility he clearly relishes.
As the most experienced player in the dressing room, Xhaka is charged with setting the tempo – not only with his passing and positioning, but with his attitude. He is the conduit between Le Bris’ tactical demands and a young, hungry squad still learning how to live in the Premier League.
"If I'm not the guy who's taking the first step, who is following me?" he said. "I'm a guy who demands a lot from himself. This is the first thing I demand from myself.
"I never show the finger first to others before I show it to myself. Sometimes people forget about the difference between demanding and complaining because, for me, these are two pairs of shoes. I want to win. And I want to win if I'm at home, I want to win when I'm on the pitch in training, and I want to win in the weekend games as well. This is me."
That relentlessness has always defined Xhaka. At Sunderland, it now defines the collective.
A reunion with Arsenal – and a reality check
The visit of Arsenal is more than a nostalgic reunion. It is a barometer.
For Xhaka, it is a chance to measure Sunderland’s progress under the “small Wenger” against the fully formed, title-chasing machine built by his former teammate Arteta. Arsenal have started the season perfectly. They arrive as heavy favourites, with rhythm, confidence, and depth.
Sunderland, though, arrive with a plan – and a manager obsessed with the tiny details that can tilt a game.
Xhaka’s partnership in midfield with Diarra and Sadiki will be central to any upset. Their job is clear: disrupt Arsenal’s flow, break their patterns, and give Sunderland’s front line a platform to counter. Against a side that punishes every mistake, the margins will be brutal.
Xhaka knows that. So do the fans. And as the noise builds around the Stadium of Light and the emotions swirl around his meeting with Arsenal, the captain has one final message for the supporters who have taken him in as their own.
"We will never give up."
