He was divisive at Arsenal but Granit Xhaka has tasted defeat TWICE in 64 games and lost the ball ONCE for Switzerland at Euro 2024… the Bayer Leverkusen star now has England in his sights, writes MATT BARLOW

What better way to celebrate the first anniversary of Granit Xhaka’s move to Bayer Leverkusen than with a quarter-final against England and a clash with Declan Rice, the £100m player who has taken his place in Arsenal’s midfield?

Things couldn’t have gone better for Xhaka since leaving north London, winning the German double and reaching the Europa League final to lead Switzerland into the last eight of Euro 2024.

“Not a perfect season, because we lost the Europa League final,” he dismissed the praise at the start of this tournament. It would not suit Xhaka’s style to appear overly complacent or self-satisfied, he prefers the hostility of competition, but in 66 games for club and country he has lost only twice. And not yet on German soil since his move from Arsenal.

He has been hailed as the Bundesliga’s best transfer of the season, a bargain £21.4m for a five-year deal. According to Leverkusen reporters, he is the club’s smartest move since signing 17-year-old Florian Wirtz from neighbouring Cologne. Wirtz is the cornerstone of a team that wins almost everything and Xabi Alonso’s strategist on the pitch and leader in the dressing room.

Xhaka has taken on a similar role at the Swiss, convincing Murat Yakin to embrace some of the tactical patterns employed at Leverkusen, as they have flourished from a disappointing qualifying campaign to face England on Saturday in Dusseldorf, the city he now calls home.

All of this has led to him, at the age of 31, finding himself in the public debate over the candidates for the next Ballon D’Or. It would have been an extraordinary sight to witness at the Emirates Stadium, when he tore off his captain’s armband and stormed down the tunnel, shouting abuse at the home fans, who booed him out of sight and then responded with interest to his four-letter insults.

They had already patched up those differences when the left winger and Mikel Arteta was not going to let him go any time soon. He could have easily deployed him alongside Rice in Arsenal’s midfield, but Xhaka was ready for a new challenge and a new chapter in his life.

Alonso has been a key catalyst in the transformation. The Leverkusen boss is fond of Xhaka and worked hard to secure the deal. Perhaps he saw something of himself in the Swiss schemer, a wealth of technical excellence coupled with a tactical mind, physical strength and a hunger for winning.

Under Alonso, Xhaka has refined his game. He’s a little less box-to-box in the long verticals of English football. Those Hollywood passes and long-range shots on target are still there, but they’re less frequently seen.

He has more control over his game, leading the game with short passes, moving the ball, creating angles, generating pace, trusting his teammates to protect possession under pressure, disrupting opponents’ formation and recognising when to strike.

At the same time, he shields his central defenders and kills counterattacks.

Xhaka claims he was already developing in this direction, something he attributes to his coaching education. He started the UEFA A Licence course at Arsenal and completed it in Germany.

Last season he was a coach one day a week for six months at SC Union Nettetal, an amateur team in the fifth division, where his brother-in-law Leonard Lekaj plays.

“This course has taught me to read games differently,” said Xhaka as he accepted the Man of the Match award after a 3-1 win over Hungary at the start of Euro 2024. “Probably to be one step ahead of the opposition and get a better picture of the game.”

This was evident from his high position in the stands of the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, where he orchestrated Switzerland’s best performance of the tournament against Italy in the round of 16. It was as if he were watching the match from above.

With that came a bit of discipline. The red mist had lifted. Xhaka even persuaded Alonso to rest him in a game against Darmstadt in February, when he was just a yellow card away from a suspension that would have ruled him out of the next game, against title rivals Bayern Munich.

He played without a yellow card as Leverkusen beat Darmstadt, convincingly defeated Bayern and cruised to their first Bundesliga title. They also lifted the German Cup, with Xhaka scoring the only goal in the final in Berlin.

He has never had the courage to take responsibility. He attributes his iron mentality to the legacy of his family, who left Kosovo for Basel in 1990, shortly after his father and uncle were released after serving three and a half years in prison for protesting against the Yugoslav government as students.

In the most difficult days at Arsenal, when he came to symbolise everything wrong with the club to fans and was the target of vicious and personal online abuse, he refused to hide or avoid his critics.

Indeed, Xhaka was always at the front of a short line of players who would face the media after a poor performance.

“A real leader – on and off the pitch,” said Alonso, for whom goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky wears the captain’s armband. “A big influence on the young players and he has made us a much better and more mature team.”

As Switzerland captain, Xhaka led a delegation of experienced players to resolve issues with national coach Yakin after their qualifying campaign failed last autumn.

There were disappointing draws with Israel and Belarus, two with Kosovo and a defeat to Romania, who eventually topped the group. All have dispelled the idea of ​​confrontation with demands from the players to return to a back three, but there was certainly dialogue followed by a fresh atmosphere and an improvement in results.

“Formation has never been something we’ve talked about, never been an issue,” Xhaka said. “We’re happy to have a coach who listens to us and talks to us. We’ve never had any issues. We’re adults and we have a great relationship with the coach.

“He often came to visit me. We met in Düsseldorf, we had dinner together and drank a lot of wine. We are ambitious and want to be successful.”

They have a taste of success. Now England and the clash with Rice. Xhaka is unlikely to let a nagging stomach ache hold him back. He played with it against Italy and trained alone, managing his workload, but he is expected to declare himself fit.

“He’s a machine,” as one Swiss official put it – and you can be sure he’ll enjoy it.