Lassana Diarra insists he was proven right to leave Arsenal in 2008 to link up with Portsmouth, despite wearing the Gunners shirt on just seven occasions in the Premier League.

The French midfielder moved to England from Le Havre to join Chelsea in 2005, but sprung a surprise by agreeing a switch to London rivals Arsenal in 2007, taking the number 8 shirt at the Emirates Stadium.




But Diarra spent only five months with the Gunners before he headed for Portsmouth for a fee of around £5.5m.

He helped the Fratton Park outfit lift the FA Cup in 2008 and moved on to Real Madrid in 2009 – and Diarra insists he does not regret leaving Arsenal.
 


"I proved to everybody that I was right to leave Arsenal", Diarra told L'Equipe.

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"I went to Portsmouth and then I went to Real Madrid. It is then I was right."

Diarra has had a less than smooth spell in his career in recent years. The midfielder left Real Madrid for Russian outfit Anzhi Makhachkala in 2012, but was offloaded by the club to Lokomotiv Moscow just a year later.

Following a dispute with Lokomotiv Moscow he had to wait until earlier this year to bounce back into the game – he left the Russian side in the summer of 2014 – when he signed for Marseille.