26-year-old says he wanted to leave Arsenal right after Unai Emery signed him

By Shamanth Jayaram

Real Madrid midfielder Dani Ceballos has been speaking about his time at Arsenal and how he wanted to leave the club right after Unai Emery signed him.

The Spaniard was brought in on loan in the summer of 2019. He started the campaign really well, but the physicality of the English game combined with Arsenal’s poor form took its toll.

Emery was sacked and in came Arteta, and Ceballos won the FA Cup under him. However, the now-26-year-old has claimed he wanted to leave long before that happened.

Dani Ceballos says he wanted to leave Arsenal shortly after he joined the club

Arsenal signed Ceballos on a season-long loan deal from Real Madrid in the summer of 2019.

The Spaniard famously rejected Tottenham Hotspur and even posted a video where he chose the Gunners to announce himself to the Emirates faithful.

However, Ceballos has now revealed that he was counting the days to leave Arsenal and go back to Real Madrid because he just wasn’t comfortable with the speed and physicality of the Premier League.

The Spaniard said, as quoted by AS and The Mirror: “I came to Arsenal because Unai Emery contacted me. He came to my house and he told me that I was the ideal player for his project in his second year at Arsenal.

“I saw the rhythm of the competition and I thought, ‘I want to go back to Spain, how long is left to go back’.

“It is a very competitive league, very physical, and it was difficult for me to get into the rhythm, but it makes you a much better player. I think my time there has been fundamental in my career.”

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Ceballos’ comments are slightly confusing.

If the Spaniard was desperate to return to Real Madrid right after signing for Arsenal, why did he re-join them on loan in the following summer, when Mikel Arteta was at the helm?

Either way, it was evident for Arsenal fans to see in his second season at the Emirates that he was not comfortable with the English game. He’s much more suited to La Liga and it’s unlikely he’ll ever return to the Premier League again.

Ceballos will be a free agent at the end of this season and it will be interesting to see where he ends up.