Arsenal fans, and Arsene Wenger as well I’m sure, will be buzzing after watching the first new Gunner of the summer put on another classy performance for his national team Switzerland at Euro 2016. There was power as well as passing from the new Arsenal star, although maybe not enough to account for his shirt twice ending up like something the incredible Hulk had been wearing.
That makes three games in a row that Xhaka has been very impressive and a popular choice for Man of the Match and the fact that this time he was facing the tournament favourites France makes it even more remarkable. To be fair to the Swiss, even though France did see two great strikes hit the woodwork, they were unlucky not to win the group as Sagna got away with a blatant shirt pull in the box right at the end which should have led to a penalty.
Switzerland actually enjoyed almost 60 percent possession against the hosts and that was in a large part due to Xhaka who once again was way ahead of anyone else in terms of touches and passes. Over 100 yet again with France’s Pogba next with over 30 fewer, so you can see why the BBC pundit Danny Murphy was so impressed and why he declared the new signing as perfect for Arsenal.
He also spoke about Xhaka maybe not being tough enough in the tackle but I reckon he has done a great job on that front so far and he seems to have a knack of knowing where and when to snuff out danger. What do you think guys, have we got ourselves a real Arsenal star of the future?
Bob.