da betsul： This article is part of Football FanCast’s Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news…
da winzada777： David Luiz has confirmed that he wanted to leave Chelsea before Arsenal made their interest in him known, per The Daily Telegraph.
What’s he said?
The Brazil international moved to The Emirates in the summer in a deal worth around £8m.
The deal was something of a surprise, with the defender making a total of 248 appearances for the Blues across two separate spells.
And he has now revealed that he would have wanted to leave Stamford Bridge whether the Gunners came knocking or not.
He said: “I decided to leave Chelsea before there was contact with Arsenal.
“People do not know that but I decided early to leave Chelsea. After that, I had contact with Arsenal and I took a decision which everybody knows was not easy.
“Me and Lampard, we had honest conversations. Man to man, me and him. His ideas of football were different to mine. We just agreed: ‘OK, we move on’. In an honest way, in a mature way.
“We played together, we won together. We won the Champions League, the Europa League, everything together. It was done in a mature way.”
An opportunity not passed up
This was a prime example of Arsenal being in the right place at the right time.
Moving to the Gunners surely led to far less upheaval than a switch abroad would have done; Luiz may even have been able to stay in the same house.
Since his transfer, he has enjoyed life in north London.
Indeed, prior to the game against Sheffield United on Monday, he had averaged 5.3 clearances per game in the Premier League, 1.7 interceptions and 1.3 blocks, along with 4.9 long balls, per WhoScored.
This is a player enjoying life in new surroundings and Arsenal will be thanking their lucky stars they were the club able to steal him away from Stamford Bridge.