Newcastle United fans will look back on this game fondly, with Sunderland now agreeing a fee with Bayer Leverkusen for Granit Xhaka.

TBR Football revealed Granit Xhaka wanted to leave Bayer Leverkusen ten days ago, with Sunderland among the Premier League clubs interested in his signature.

Xhaka looked Saudi-bound for a while, but now, it’s emerged that the Black Cats have won the race for the former Arsenal man’s signature, in a big statement of intent following their return to England’s top flight.

Xhaka will bring some much-needed experience to Regen Le Bris’ side, but that doesn’t come without a little bit of hot-headedness.

Granit Xhaka lost it against Newcastle for Arsenal in 2022

Back in 2022, Xhaka criticised his team-mates after their performance in a 2-0 defeat at Newcastle.

The Swiss international felt his side’s display showed they could not handle the pressure of chasing a top-four spot.

Victory would have moved them above Tottenham into the Champions League places with one game remaining, but the Gunners bottled it.

“If someone isn’t ready for this game, stay at home,” Xhaka told BBC Sport.

“It doesn’t matter your age. If you’re nervous, stay on the bench or stay at home. You need people to come here and play. It’s one of the most important games for us. We’re feeling very disappointed for the people who came over here.”

“We wanted to have a big game but it didn’t happen,” he continued.

“People speak always about leaders. We’re not playing tennis, we’re playing football. If someone is not ready for this pressure, stay at home.

“You can’t come here and play like this. We looked very bad today. The game plan was totally different. We played a totally different game.

“They were running us over from the first minute to the 96th. When you play like this, you don’t deserve to play in the Champions League.

“The thing is the pressure. If you can’t handle the pressure, it ends like today. It looks like we can’t do something against the pressure.”

What happened in the game for Granit Xhaka to go ballistic?

Essentially, the loss at St James’ meant that Arsenal’s Champions League hopes for that season were crushed. A Ben White own goal and a Bruno Guimaraes strike are what crushed it.

Newcastle fans will be hoping a Xhaka meltdown is apparent again on the 13th of December 2025, when the Geordies travel to the Stadium of Light to face their bitter rivals for the first time in the Premier League since 2016.