Granit Xhaka Praises Régis Le Bris as Sunderland's 'Small Wenger'

Granit Xhaka has worked for some of the sharpest minds in modern football. Arsène Wenger, Unai Emery, Mikel Arteta, Xabi Alonso – the list reads like a coaching Hall of Fame. So when the Swiss midfielder singles out his current boss at Sunderland, people listen.

And he does more than just praise Régis Le Bris. He gives him a nickname.

“I call him like the small Arsene Wenger,” Xhaka told TNT Sports ahead of Sunderland’s looming clash with Arsenal. It was said with warmth, not hype. “As a human being, he's top. He's very calm, he's not a guy who screams, he has all the solutions and tactically, he's amazing. And even for him, to get a new team, now again with new players, I believe is not easy.

“But he showed himself that he is a great manager, he showed himself that he can improve this team, the players. And myself, I'm very thankful that I can have a coach like him.”

From Leverkusen to Wearside, with intent

Le Bris made his move last summer. Bringing Xhaka from Bayer Leverkusen to the Stadium of Light was not a romantic punt on a big name. It was a statement that Sunderland intended to sit at the top table again.

The impact was immediate. In their first season back in the Premier League, Xhaka wore the armband and dragged Sunderland to a superb seventh-place finish, punching a ticket to the Europa League and ripping up most pre-season predictions in the process.

That rise, Xhaka insists, is no accident. When he is asked what separates Le Bris from the elite managers he has already known, he goes straight to one theme: detail.

“He's very detailed. So if he analyses something – not just the opponent, but even us and more the individual meetings – he's very detailed,” Xhaka explained. “He goes into details that I haven't seen often in a coach. So every player here has improved over the last 16 months and I think there is still space to improve for everyone.”

This is where the “small Wenger” tag starts to make sense. Not as a comparison of trophies, but of obsession. Of a manager who lives inside the small things.

The standard-bearer in the dressing room

Le Bris might draw the plans, but Xhaka enforces the standards. As Sunderland’s most experienced player, the 31-year-old is more than a deep-lying playmaker. He is the conduit between the manager’s tactical demands and a young, ambitious squad still learning what it means to compete at the highest level.

“If I'm not the guy who's taking the first step, who is following me?” he said. It is not a rhetorical flourish. It is how he lives. “I'm a guy who demands a lot from himself. This is the first thing I demand from myself.

“I never show the finger first to others before I show it to myself. Sometimes people forget about the difference between demanding and complaining because, for me, these are two pairs of shoes. I want to win. And I want to win if I'm at home, I want to win when I'm on the pitch in training, and I want to win in the weekend games as well. This is me.”

That mentality has become the spine of Le Bris’ Sunderland. The manager sets the tactical framework; Xhaka sets the tone.

A reunion with Arsenal – and a reality check

Now comes the real measure. Arsenal at the Stadium of Light. Xhaka against his old club, Le Bris against Arteta, Sunderland against a side that have started the season perfectly and carry the weight of a title challenge.

For Xhaka, this is far more than another date on the calendar. It is a yardstick for how far Sunderland have travelled in a short, frantic 16 months under Le Bris.

To live with Arsenal, Sunderland will need every ounce of that famed preparation. Every clip, every pattern, every tweak that Le Bris pores over in those individual meetings. Xhaka’s partnership in midfield with Diarra and Sadiki will be central to the plan, tasked with disrupting Arsenal’s rhythm and turning a reunion into a contest, not a nostalgia trip.

Xhaka knows what is coming. He knows the quality of Arteta’s side. He knows what it will take to match them. And he has a final message for the fans who have embraced him as their captain and standard-bearer.

“We will never give up,” he said.

Under the “small Wenger” on the touchline and a relentless captain in the middle of the pitch, Sunderland now have to prove that is more than just a slogan.