Real Madrid midfielder Dani Ceballos has confessed he wanted to leave Arsenal soon after joining the Gunners on loan during Unai Emery's reign as manager.
With Emery at the helm, Arsenal landed Ceballos' signature on loan in the summer of 2019. Few Gunners fans could forget his stunning debut against Burnley at home, which saw the Spaniard earn comparisons with Emirates favourite Santi Cazorla after just one game.
However, Ceballos failed to truly hit those heights at any other time during his stay in north London and has since confessed he never took to life at Arsenal and wanted to return to the Spanish capital almost immediately, though he admits there were some positives to his stint as a Gunner.
Speaking on Universo Valdano, per AS, the midfielder claimed: "I came to Arsenal because Unai Emery contacted me. He came to my house and he told me that I was the ideal player for his project in his second year at Arsenal.
"I saw the rhythm of the competition and I thought, 'I want to go back to Spain, how long is left to go back'.
"It is a very competitive league, very physical, and it was difficult for me to get into the rhythm, but it makes you a much better player. I think my time there has been fundamental in my career."
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The player's time with Emery was cut drastically short as the latter was sacked as Arsenal manager just four months after Ceballos arrived and was soon replaced by Mikel Arteta.
It is actually his time under Arteta that makes these recent remarks so surprising, as the pair seemed to forge a stellar relationship and Ceballos played a crucial role in Arsenal's FA Cup triumph in 2020.
At the end of the 2019/20 season, Arteta made it clear he valued Ceballos as a player by tying him down to a second season on loan a month after bagging the FA Cup.
However, the Spain international's second campaign came and went without much to note as Ceballos' form abandoned him and he returned to the Santiago Bernabeu, though not before passionately defending Arteta at a time when criticism was rife.
"Arteta is a coach who I am sure will be one of the best in the world in the next few years, but I would like to return to the Spanish league," he told El Larguero.
Ceballos has since won a Champions League with Real Madrid after leaving Arsenal and features more regularly for Los Blancos nowadays, with 18 league outings to his name this term.
