Emile Smith Rowe has been one of Arsenal’s best players since he broke into the first team a few weeks ago.
The former Huddersfield loanee capped off a fine display with one of the goals as Arsenal beat Newcastle United 2-0 in the FA Cup yesterday.
He is expected to get even better and become a mainstay in the club’s first team, and Granit Xhaka agrees with that expectation.
The Swiss midfielder was speaking after the game and he praised the youngster for his attitude, saying that he always listens to his more experienced teammates.
He also said that Smith Rowe was doing very well in terms of ball recoveries and picking the right passes before backing him to keep getting better because of his mentality.
Xhaka told Arsenal Media as quoted by Mail Sport: ‘He’s a lovely guy, a very good guy who wants to improve, he listens to us experienced players a lot and he’s so important to us.
‘You can see how many balls he recovers, how many key balls he plays at the front and for the front guys as well he’s so important.
‘He has to keep going like this, to improve day-by-day but he has a good mentality and that’s very important as well.’
Arsenal has been longing for a new creative midfielder, and Smith Rowe’s emergence will save them a lot of money in the transfer market.
Far be it from me or anYone to over praise and put pressure on this fine young man with his excellent attitude. But no fan can help seeing the polar difference in attutudes betwen Saka, ESR, Tierney and Martinelli on the one hand and on the other, the “could not care less play” of Willian Pepe, and this season, even Auba.
I would rather lose all three of the latter group than even any one of the former group and – unless Auba improves rapidly – expect the club will look to move all the other lazy ones on by this summer.
Whether or not they succeed in doing so is a different matter, esp given the Covid financial effect across the world.