West Ham Fan Reveals Exactly What Sunderland Ace Granit Xhaka Said in Furious Spat

West Ham United picked up a brilliant 3-1 victory over Regis Le Bris’ Sunderland on Saturday afternoon and the visiting bench was left in uproar in the 83rd minute as captain Granit Xhaka argued with some West Ham fans. A source close to the situation has now revealed exactly what the Swiss midfielder said throughout the spat.

Although they remain in the relegation places, Nuno Espirito Santo’s men picked up a morale-lifting victory against one of the Premier League’s surprise packages – and their goalscoring rout began in the 14th minute courtesy of Crysencio Summerville. Jarrod Bowen later scored from the spot to double their lead.

Mateus Fernandes, West Ham’s stand-out performer, then added a third before the half-time interval and Brian Brobbey scored a consolation in the 66th minute, thus leaving the Black Cats slap bang in the middle of the table. Xhaka was unavailable for the contest, but he made sure to be involved by arguing with an opposition fan.

West Ham Fan Reveals What Sunderland’s Granit Xhaka Said in Spat

Xhaka, signed from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer, has been integral to Sunderland’s high-flying season to date, and they missed his box-to-box presence in midfield as they fell on the sword of West Ham, who will be hoping to gain some sort of momentum after such a brilliant home triumph. Sunderland, however, will be looking to get back to winning ways when they host Burnley at the Stadium of Light next.

Widely regarded as one of the best Premier League signings of the summer, the seasoned Xhaka was still heavily involved despite being sat with other teammates behind Le Bris’ dugout – and that’s because he was embroiled in a heated exchange with a member of the home contingent.

Referee Thomas Bramall was forced to halt play to speak to the West Ham manager while stewards and the fourth official were hands-on to deal with the incident.

TV cameras picked up the Black Cats midfielder arguing with supporters sat behind the away dugout – a section reserved for hospitality ticket holders. Speaking to SunSport, a supporter who was in earshot of the war of words has now revealed what he heard.

The confrontation, which was picked up by a number of cameras inside the London Stadium, reportedly started after Nordi Mukiele made way for Luke O’Nien in the 83rd minute, and the defender was “obviously p****ed off”, throwing his arms aloft before exchanging words with Sunderland manager Le Bris. The fan said:

“Everyone’s going ‘Whey! Whey!’ and giving it to him, ‘dry your eyes, mate’ – like we always do it to be fair, being so close. Then he sort of turned around, went back towards the pitch and had a pop at the manager. That got another ‘Whey!’ again, a bigger roar.

He’s turning around all the time, we’ve obviously rattled him. Then Xhaka’s turned around because he’s sitting two or three rows behind the dugout and between us,” he continued before claiming the 33-year-old midfielder asked the West Ham supporters to show his teammate a sense of respect.

“He’s turned around and started giving it to one of my mates who was sitting just in front, basically going ‘show some respect, show some respect’ – quite ironic considering [Mukiele] just had a pop at his own manager. Everyone then starts giving it to Xhaka, telling him to wind his neck in. The confrontation then escalated after another person headed towards Xhaka. Another guy came [towards the dugout] to calm it down,” the source added.

“And then Xhaka started calling him out saying, ‘I’ll see you outside, I’ll see you outside.’ Then as he was heading down the tunnel after the game finished he was still going to the guy, ‘I’ll see you outside’. It was all Xhaka, complete head loss. The geezer’s on 100 grand a week getting rattled by absolute nobodies, just giving it the big ‘un. It was all on him.”

Xhaka’s Absence Was Felt by Sunderland, Stuart Pearce Claims

If Saturday lunchtime’s encounter proved anything, it was that Xhaka – who flopped at Arsenal before moving to Germany in 2023 – is crucially important to how they set up. Stuart Pearce analysed his absence afterward when speaking to talkSPORT: “We pointed out that they give the ball away by playing passes from that midfield area and in that midfield area, that was the biggest downside of their play todayfar at least two weeks. “I don’t know the time frame yet, we’ll see,” he said before adding: “We’ll have at least two weeks of rest and then we’ll assess this injury, an ankle injury.”

“He’s important for the squad, but it’s not an excuse. It’s not possible to think like that. We have a good squad. They have to experience different situations. It’s uncomfortable, but I think we can learn more from a difficult period like that rather than sometimes a sequence of wins,” Le Bris concluded.