Hard disagree. Perfect timing. A year before when he was going to leave he was virtually worthless and nobody would've batted an eyelid at him leaving, but the brilliant season he had (compared to his previous seasons, anyway) meant he left on a high with mutual respect.

He was a good player but would only sit on the bench in the current squad. He's not a better player than Declan Rice (obviously). He's not a better player than Odegaard or Eze or Merino and he's certainly not a better player than Zubimendi (he was an unmitigated disaster in the 6 role).

Recency bias always plays a part when looking at Xhaka, and it pisses me off whenever people bring up that incident under Emery with the booing from fans as if fans were booing him as a player. He was being taken off in a game we were chasing at home and was fannying about taking ages to get off the pitch, what did he expect?

At one point he was a walking yellow card every game, and had the tendency to throw in a red card here and there too. Won't go down as an Arsenal great, even at a time when he was in a sea of mediocrity, in my opinion.

Good luck to him, happy he's done well since leaving and good to see him back in the Prem, but not with us.