Granit Xhaka is back in the Premier League after signing for Sunderland.
The Swiss international has returned to England after a stint with Bayer Leverkusen, and he’s joined The Black Cats as Regis Le Bris looks to beat the drop this season.
Granit Xhaka has only been back in the country for a week or so and he’s already causing a bit of controversy.
Xhaka was always a controversial figure when he was at Arsenal.
Indeed, taking part in a challenge for Sunderland’s TikTok page, Xhaka has been ranking and rating some of the Premier League’s all-time great midfielders and he made some very controversial picks here.
Photo by Pau Barrena/Getty ImagesGranit Xhaka ranks Jordan Henderson ahead of Nemanja Matic
Xhaka took part in a ranking task where he had to place 10 great Premier League midfielders in order.
This was a blind ranking challenge, so some strange choices were made towards the end of the task as the likes of Gareth Barry were picked over Frank Lampard.
However, earlier in the video, Xhaka had more free reign to put who he wanted wherever he wanted, and ultimately, he picked Jordan Henderson ahead of Nemanja Matic.
Xhaka has an interesting history with both Henderson and Matic.
Xhaka and Henderson famously had a bit of a bust-up when Arsenal played Liverpool back in 2022.
Meanwhile, Xhaka and Matic have a complicated history based on Xhaka’s goal celebrations vs Serbia at the last two World Cups and his Albanian heritage.
Granit Xhaka’s record vs Jordan Henderson
Xhaka ranked Henderson highly when taking part in this challenge, and it’s not hard to understand why.
Indeed, Henderson has often got the better of Xhaka during their careers, as the numbers show.
Granit Xhaka’s record vs Jordan HendersonGames12Wins1Draws3Losses8
These two haven’t faced off since Henderson left Liverpool for £13m back in 2023 to head to Saudi Arabia.
Xhaka and Henderson have been used to battling it out for top honours at Arsenal and Liverpool over the years, but, this season, they will meet in very different circumstances.
Indeed, with both players now at Sunderland and Brentford respectively, this battle this season may be more centred on the relegation battle rather than a title race, and it will be interesting to see how these two fare when this old rivalry is reignited.