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.