I wanted to leave Arsenal almost immediately after I joined – I asked my agent if I could move

Willian admitted to being unhappy during his time at Arsenal, to the extent that he begged his agent to arrange a move just three months into his contract.

The ex-Gunners and Fulham star, whose loyalties will be clear when the two teams clash on Saturday evening, had a less-than-pleasant experience in north London. Before joining Arsenal, Willianhad spent seven successful years at Chelsea, making 339 appearances, scoring 63 goals and providing 58 assists.

However, his decision to swap west London for the north and sign a three-year deal with Arsenal did not pan out as expected. Despite initial excitement about working under Mikel Arteta at the Emirates Stadium, his enthusiasm quickly waned and he began planning an exit strategy.

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During an interview with Rio Ferdinand on his YouTube channel in 2021, Williansaid: "I wasn't happy, I wasn't happy. That's why I didn't perform. I don't want to go into the details.

"When I arrived there I was happy, from the beginning I was motivated, I wanted to do well - new club, new mates, new project. But after three months, I said to my agent, 'Please, I want to go.' I don't want to speak bad about the club, because it is a big club. Arsenal has a big history.

"In football, big players played there before as well. But it didn't work, it didn't work. It was, of course, the most difficult time of my career."

Willian abandoned a £240,000-a-week contract with the Gunners, ripping it up just one year into a three-year agreement. He sacrificed around £20.5million in pursuit of happiness elsewhere. Reflecting on the cost of this choice, he added: "It was big money that I gave up.

"But sometimes money is not the most important thing in life. I think you need to be happy, get pleasure every day waking up in the morning to go to train. I wasn't having that.

"So I said to myself, with my family, I cannot stay here, I am not happy here. I have to leave, find a way out, leave the club, because if I stay I am going to stay the same. For me, it's unfair to stay in a place that you don't want to stay just because of the money. For me, it was that."

Initially, Willian had hoped to remain at Stamford Bridge, but he wasn't satisfied with the terms on offer at the time. He said: "It was difficult to decide, because I wanted to stay at Chelsea.

"But I wanted a three-year contract and Chelsea say, 'No we want to give you two years.' So it was like this: they say two, I say three, they say two, I say three.

"At the end of the season, I decided to join Arsenal and also because before we had conversations with Edu and Mikel [Arteta] as well. They showed me a good project, they showed me a lot of good stuff that they want to do. It was because of that.

"I say well, I want three years, Arsenal wants to give me three years, I want to stay in England, I want to stay in London, my family is happy in London, maybe it is a good opportunity to go there and continue what I am doing."

After a challenging year at Arsenal, Willian returned to his homeland, Brazil, with Corinthians. He then had two separate spells with Fulham and is now back playing football for Gremio at the ripe age of 37.