The Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka was given a straight red card in Arsenal’s 5-0 defeat at Man City at the weekend, but the Swiss captain doesn’t feel like he did anything wrong at all as he quite clearly got the ball.
At the time the Gunners were already 2-0 down, so he could hardly be blamed for the defeat, but there were quite a few Arsenal fans that felt it was a crazy attempt and the captain should not be risking leaving his team with only ten men on the pitch.
Xhaka, though, was obviously not in the mood to apologise…. “After such a false start, you get criticised. That’s normal and part of it. Every player has to accept that,” he told Keystone – SDA, transcribed by Bluewin.
“About the red card: brutally surprising! In connection with the Premier League, people often talk about English toughness.
“I hit the ball 100 per cent and got a red. The pictures were not checked by the VAR. I’ve seen tougher tackles that weren’t even assessed as a foul.
“Am I prejudiced against? I don’t know – I don’t want to judge. I’m not going to let it drive me crazy. I can’t undo anything anyway. All I can do is look ahead.”
This is a little worrying in my eyes.
This is not the first time that Xhaka has got red cards for challenges like this, and all footballers should know by now that any two-footed, off-the-floor challenge is a clear red in any referees eyes.
What is more worrying to me is that Xhaka has no remorse…