Arsenal boss to back red carded Xhaka with Ludogorets start

Although some Arsenal fans and plenty of people in the football press have been hammering the Switzerland international Granit Xhaka for his performance against Swansea City in which he was sent off for a tackle on Modou Barrow, the manager was quick to back his big summer signing.

Arsene Wenger is never usually one to criticise his players in public, but as well as not doing that the Frenchman explained that he thought that the tackle only merited a yellow card as it was not dangerous or malicious and was the Swansea player was not exactly in on goal but somewhere out wide near the halfway line.

Those comments from Wenger will surely be welcomed by Xhaka but I think the boss needs to go further and boost his spirits by starting the Swiss midfielder in our next game, which is at home to Ludogorets Razgrad in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Francis Coquelin is going to start the Premier League match against Middlesborough on Saturday anyway, so it might be a good idea to0 keep the Frenchman as fresh as possible and the European tie against the Bulgarians wouls suit Xhaka’s more adventurous game as well.

Most important, however, is to keep the players’ confidence up so after some heavy criticism, do you think Wenger will start Xhaka again this week?

Bob.

Tags Coquelin Wenger

10 Comments

  1. Xhaka fragility will come when attacking players charges him with the ball enticing him on a one on one chase, his sluggest acceleration seems to let him down, he has no resolutions to these tactics when used against him other than attempt to break the opposition player fibula and hope he only get a yellow card.

    The other problem with Xhaka is this, he seems to be too statics in games, when Arsenal try to play from the back his style of play frequently get them lock dowm in risky triangular one two passes in front of their own goal. Looking at Xhaka overall performance this season there is absolutely no way he will be able to justify his 35 million price tag.

    Coquelin is by far a superior player defensively than Xhaka, Elneny is also better than Xhaka both defensively and offensively. I personally disagree with Mr Wenger is spending 35 million in transfer fee and 120,000 weekly wages on a player as limited as Xhaka. Many Arsenal fans may not agree with me but halfway through the season I will have statistics to bail me out of my comments.

    1. Why does it require half a season to prove one’s worth if it only takes one red card to be judged as not worthy?

  2. I think wenger is doing the right thing by starting him again,it will boost his confidence and he would see it that such mistakes wasn’t repeated again thereby putting his best for the team,depending on the outcome of the game,I think at second half Le coq needs to come on. Please what has happened to Perez?

  3. Leave it up to mornino to ruin ur monday…this game is boring as f@@k….give me arsenal vs scums down the lane anyday of the week..or even Liverpool and everton…this game is a waste of time so far

    1. master bus parker, only media is shocked because the amount of hype surrounding the game was ridiculous. He did the same thing with Chelsea. Everyone knew to avoid watching Chelsea vs United match because it was always horrendous. Now he’s gone and ruined another big fixture. Good result for us tho, heh.

  4. am I the only one who thinks gibbs should be given a chance because monreal is having a difficult time . look at Liverpool goals, Willian vs Chelsea, barrow vs Swansea, cavani goal vs psg, pereraya goal vs Watford. I think he is being stretched alot and there is no cover for him

  5. Trying to figure out who should be rested without unsettling the team and being complacent.

    Alexis needs the rest most cos he played all international break games for Chile and returned later than the Europeans.

    Walcott next on line in need of rest cos he is Walcott and is the most fragile starter, most prone to injury.

    Iwobi: he is still getting used to playing every 3days.

    OSPINA;
    Bellerin,Mustafi,Koscielny,GIBBS ;
    Xhaka,COQUELIN ;
    Ozil,Cazorla,OX ;
    LUCAS

    1. I like that lineup. Wish Bellerin could get some rest, but we have absolutely not backup, :/. Jenko back in training at least. (I don’t think Debuchy was put in UCL squad either)

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