05/10/2026
Willian: "Arteta said to me: "We're going to play like this and I want you to be the main guy, I will build the team around you, I want to give you the key to the club".
"When I heard that, obviously I love Chelsea but I was in the last year of my contract, I was 32, and I was thinking three more years in London, stay with my family in London, they love London. And then I decided.
"To be honest I should have stayed but at that moment I was thinking maybe the best solution is to go there, and I signed for three years there but it was not good.
"The mentality was totally different to Chelsea,' he added. 'You cannot compare. That's why I got frustrated also because the mentality was not the same in the club.
"When I left Chelsea they were fighting for titles every season, but Arsenal were in the middle of the situation where people were leaving, people were coming, and it was a difficult situation. But straight away I saw the mentality was different."
