Well it might have been a struggle for his national side in general, but at least the Arsenal and Switzerland international midfield star Granit Xhaka put on a strong performance in his first game of the Euro 2016 tournament and that is good news for the Arsenal fans keen to see what Arsene Wenger has added to the Arsenal squad with his first transfer of the summer.
Switzerland did win the game but after going ahead in the first five minutes and seeing Albania reduced to 10 men before the break you would have expected it to be more comfortable and they needed a point blank save from their keeper in the closing stages to take all three points.
However, the new Arsenal man cannot be blamed for all that as it was sloppy finishing from the Swiss forwards that meant Albania were still in the game at all and Xhaka himself had a very effective game in the middle, earning himself the Man of the Match award in the Sky Sports report of the match.
Here is a video of his impressive performance…..
His crisp passing and energy in midfield certainly impressed the pundit Danny Murphy who said on the BBC that Xhaka´s performance held a lot of promise for his future at Arsenal. With more touches than any other player and two decent chances created from his deep lying midfield role, I was certainly as impressed with the new Gunner as Murphy was.
He said, “His passing looks very nice and has a determination to get back and retrieve the ball so there is a nice balance to his game.”
So do we think that Wenger has got this one spot on?
Bob