Willian opted to sign for Arsenal as a free agent in 2020, but the ex-Chelsea winger soon regretted his decision and left by mutual consent the following year
Former Arsenal winger Willian regretted his decision to join the club after only three months with the Gunners. The Brazilian had established himself as a Chelsea hero during his seven-year spell with the Blues, but suffered a nightmare campaign at the Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal snapped up Willian on a three-year contract in 2020, with the player having been frustrated by Chelsea offering only a two-year extension. The 32-year-old joining as a free agent could have proved astute business for the Gunners, offering experienced competition for Nicolas Pepe and emerging talent Bukayo Saka as Mikel Arteta started rebuilding his squad.
However, the reality fell well short of Arsenal and Willian’s expectations. He failed to replicate his Chelsea form, scoring just once in 37 outings before cutting his time at the Gunners short by mutual consent and rejoining his boyhood club Corinthians in 2021. Willian later branded his 12 months with Arsenal as the worst period of his career.
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„I wasn’t happy, I wasn’t happy. That’s why I didn’t perform. I don’t want to go into the details,“ Willian revealed on Rio Ferdinand’s YouTube channel in 2021. „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.“
During his final campaign at Chelsea, Willian had started 29 league matches and contributed 16 combined goals and assists, demonstrating why Arsenal had faith in the veteran forward. Twelve months on, the Brazilian was prepared to forfeit the rest of his deal to head back to his homeland.
„It was big money that I gave up [to leave Arsenal],“ he continued. „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.“
The two-time Premier League champion spent a year with Corinthians, where his displays earned him a switch to newly-promoted Fulham. Willian embraced his return to England, clocking up 79 appearances across two stints under Marco Silva before departing this summer, though his regret over leaving Chelsea for Arsenal remained.
„Yeah. I wish I’d never left [Chelsea]. Yeah,“ Willian told Sky Sports in 2023. „Of course, it’s easy to say something now, but when I stop to think about the whole situation then yeah, I say to myself I wish I’d never left. But it’s life. I’m happy now at Fulham – enjoying myself there, so this is life.“
Reflecting on Arsenal’s success after his departure, Willian added: „They are flying now. I don’t know, I think I came while it was changing a lot. I was excited when I signed with them, I was training hard but it just didn’t work.“
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