There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth a couple of weeks ago when it was announced that Arsenal had extended the contracts of David Luiz, who had just had a horror show at Man City, and also Cedric Soares, who had arrived on loan but had not even kicked a ball for us in a competitive game.
But yesterday at the Emirates, Arteta replaced Bellerin with Soares to give the Portugese a run out as we were beating Norwich 3-0, and within four minutes he had put us 4-0 up with a screamer from outside the box.
Understandably he was happy to have scored so quickly on his debut for the Gunners, and he said after the game: “Yes, it felt great to be fair. To be able to first of all play for Arsenal in Emirates Stadium and add that start with a goal, of course I feel very, very happy. But I need to thank all my colleagues, they helped me during this time. You saw the reaction, they were happy as well. They were supporting me and I’m very, very thankful for that. But most important is of course the three points.”
That goal capped off a great evening for Arsenal with Xhaka scoring a brilliant team goal sandwiched in between two typical Aubameyang poachers goals, but what a great feeling it must be for the lad.
Let’s hope we see a lot more of this from him in the future….