David Luiz admits fearing he’d made a mistake when he joined Arsenal last year.
The Brazilian defender was sold by Chelsea last summer in a shock £8million deal.
Had he stayed at Stamford Bridge he’d have struggled to make the starting line-up after a disappointing pre-season under Frank Lampard.
But Luiz revealed he still had concerns about his move across London to join then-boss Unai Emery - who was eventually sacked - before managing to adapt.
“It wasn’t easy at first,” he said. “Not only [because] of adaptation, but also because of the criticism, the sadness of many Chelsea fans for not understanding my personal decisions.
“My respect and love for Chelsea has always been true. It was difficult to deal with the emotional part, then playing, things were not happening on the pitch, the results weren’t coming.
“Unai is a great coach and a great person, but things weren’t happening for him either. So you get into a stir and try to stay upright, and strong.
"And I often wondered why this decision was made. Why is this happening?
“First of all, I was always very happy at Chelsea.
"And then the understanding of knowing that my cycle was over, even though I thought it wasn’t going to end that way, in a quick decision. I decided to leave Chelsea before I even had my doors open at Arsenal,” David Luiz told ESPN Brasil.
“I know that Arsenal didn’t come at a great moment, they had a weight on their defence, I go there and I’ll have to pay the restaurant bill without having eaten.
"But I’m going because I want something new for my life, I want to learn.”
