‘Wow, fair play’ – Matt Le Tissier blown away by ‘incredible’ Sunderland player
Granit Xhaka has been key to Sunderland’s impressive start to the season and deserves a lot of credit for proving people wrong since moving back to the Premier League.
That is according to Premier League legend Matt Le Tissier, who has exclusively told Football Insider that he was unsure if Xhaka’s move to Sunderland would work out but has been pleasantly surprised by his strong form to help the newly-promoted side start the season so well.
Sunderland sealed promotion back to the Premier League through the play-offs last season, and spent a lot in the summer window as Granit Xhaka joined from Bayer Leverkusen, Habib Diarra signed from Strasbourg and Simon Adingra arrived from Brighton, among many more.
They have taken to the top-flight with ease so far following their big spending, with Sunderland beating Chelsea 2-1 last time out through a late Chemsdine Talbi winner to move up to fourth in the table.
Xhaka has been instrumental to their success so far, despite some initial doubts over whether he was the right type of signing for the Black Cats upon their return to the Premier League.
Granit Xhaka has been a key man for Sunderland this season
Xhaka made nearly 300 appearances for Arsenal and even held the captain’s armband in 2019 before moving on to join Bayer Leverkusen in 2023 for a fee of £21.4million.
He made an instant impact as a regular starter in their side as Xabi Alonso led his squad to an invincible title-winning Bundesliga season in 2023-24, and also featured 49 times last term as Leverkusen finished as runners-up and reached the Champions League round of 16.
Sunderland made the 33-year-old theirs for around £17m in July, and he has made a seamless return to the English game with three assists in nine league starts up to now.
Xhaka was appointed as Sunderland’s new captain just weeks after joining, and he has led the club to the dizzying heights of the Premier League top-four already despite many tipping them to struggle this season.
Le Tissier delivers high praise to Xhaka for ‘terrific’ Sunderland form
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, the former England and Southampton striker applauded Xhaka’s strong start to the season with the Black Cats and admitted that he has proved him wrong so far.
He said: “I must admit, it raised my eyebrows when they paid that much money for him [Xhaka] in the summer. I was like, ‘oh blimey, that seems a bit too much for somebody who’s just starting on the downhill slope of the end of his career.’
“But, wow, fair play to him. He’s done a terrific job there. You hear the manager speak so highly of him with the influence that he’s had in the changing room, his attitude around the place with the younger players.
“He seems to have been a real good example to those players, and fair play to him, I think he’s shoved a lot of people’s words back down their throats, probably mine included.
“You’ve got to give a lot of credit to a guy who’s come in, you know, he’s been at top clubs, challenging at the other end of the table, and yet here he was coming into a team that everyone expected to be challenging at the bottom end.
“And after nine games, he’s sat in the Champions League spots, which is just incredible. So, yeah, a lot of credit goes to him.”