Mikel Arteta has said he convinced Granit Xhaka to stay at Arsenal during a heart-to-heart conversation.

Xhaka's agent revealed his client wanted to join Hertha Berlin after a fall out with the Arsenal supporters, which lead to him being stripped of the club captaincy.

But Arteta insists the Swiss midfielder is committed to the Gunners after the pair enjoyed an honest conversation.

"The first message for him was that I wanted to understand how he was feeling, why he was feeling that way," Arteta explained while discussing how he convinced Xhaka to stay.

"I wanted him to hear from me my opinion on him, and that I was ready to support him and that I was ready to push the club to be supportive of him too, because I thought he could be a really, really good player for us and he could enjoy in this football club playing under me.

"I tried to convince him that way. He thought about it, he had a very positive response afterwards, and I think he changed his mind."