I just hope we can see this same Xhaka in every Arsenal game

Granit Xhaka put in a man of the match performance as Arsenal beat Southampton 2-0 to return to winning ways.

The Swiss midfielder has come under fire on many occasions before now and he even fell out with the club’s fans this season, which cost him the captain’s armband (Goal).

He was even on the verge of leaving Arsenal (SkySports), but Mikel Arteta managed to convince him to stay.

He has been getting better under the Spaniard, and his return to action against Southampton was a delight.

Arsenal lost their two games after they lost him to injury against Manchester City and I wish he had played the game against Brighton, I strongly believe that we would have gotten something from that game.

Xhaka was tidy in possession against Southampton and he brought about an urgency that we haven’t seen in a long time to our play.

We need to end this season in a European place and we will need our players to be in top form for that to happen.

All I want is for Xhaka to deliver the same performance he delivered against Southampton in our next few games. A more consistent performance from him might bring about an upturn in performance from other team members as well.

Tags Granit Xhaka

21 Comments

  1. If this guy stays we are doomed to mid table mediocrity for the foreseeable future … poor vision poor tackler poor passer worse judgement … people are clutching at straws in looking for improvement under arteta the numbers don’t show it and there are no signs of aN attractive playing style .. partly that’s because like wenger and Emory he tinkers too much and we lack quality in depth and all over the pitch to do that … which was apparent yday with exception of attack Where we have some talent but not working together or sufficiently hard enough … willock naitland miles Nelson xhaka guendhouzi will never in a million years elevate the team … let alone Luiz mustafi kolasinac … am hopeful that holding might gel with the French guy next season and tierney is a decent defender but bellerin needs to be sold before people realize how utterly useless he is … arteta will be lucky to get a b minus by seasons end unless he gets lucky in the cup but he’s not the problem which lies with the owner and management culture which promised great things with a new stadium when all they really wanted was to maximize cash flow without reinvesting in Quality needed to get there

    1. Xhaka had a great game last night, what game did you watch, he was turn the ball the whole night, go look at his pass rate, nonsense. Did he score a goal, have an assist, create a chance, how many tackles & intercepts did he had, did he covered he most ground. Our defense was solid because we had numbers at the back and in the middle, not because Xhaka was there and we play against a weak team that still manage better ball possession at times against us. Nonsense, you can’t read a game. Arteta is going to be Arsenal’s biggest mistake

    2. clearly you haven been watching games and analyzing his plays

      Xhaka is a very good passer of the ball… especially the long pass…

      Have you seen Petit play?

      They are abit similar not identical….Petit is better defensively

      What Xhaka need is consistency and a good partner to help with the defensive duties……probably a good B2B like Song, Viera or Toure that is quick to run back and defend

    3. Did you say Wenger used to tinker?Seriously with Wenger is someone whose team was always the same.Infact fans used to complain of him running some players into the ground because he never allowed them rest.

  2. Totally agree rw1 he has one maybe 2 half decent games and people are making out he is xabi Alonso ,he still isn’t good at sniffing out danger can’t tackle not very mobile if you think you can rely on him your grossly mistaken

  3. Xhaka is not world class but out of all our midfielders he is not my greatest worry right now. He is a player that has improved under Arteta.

  4. It’s funny how people see different things…. I mean some fans elsewhere absolutely rave about him, just like Arsene, Unai and now Mikel did/do!
    Could they all be wrong or does he really not get enough credit??

      1. He seems to have improved under MA… we have a better win ratio with him than without him…
        Now before I get lynched, I’m not saying he’s world class or would walk into a top 6 team, ok?? Maybe I just focus more on the misplaced passes than the grafting 😆 We have to make do with what we have until the window opens…

  5. Some People focus only on the negatives. So they see Xhaka miss some passes and call him worthless. But those same people do not mention the passes he gets rigtht because it does not fit their narrative.

  6. If Xhaka was MOM against Southampton, we must have been poor, he gave the ball away 12 times and did nothing else of note. This guy has been at the heart of the Arsenal mediocrity since he came. Please stop bigging him up when he is so poor and part of the problem with Arsenal. While he is here we will be poor.

  7. Yes..superb performance and as long as Gendouzi is not around we will have chance to win the game

  8. He was doing fine. Strangely, I felt he is the one who kept our midfield altogether, perhaps he needs someone playing better than him in his side to improve even more, not like Ceballos who isn’t giving his best anymore!

    I would rather see Gandouzi or Niles next to Xhaka!

      1. Even if he gets back i dont think he will get into the RM midfield,man that midfield is just pure class

  9. There was a time,when Santi Carzola and Francis Coquelin were bossing the midfield.Incredible partnership.One was good at breaking the opposing team’s attack but not good at starting an attack for his team-thats Coquelin.So he would break the attack,make a short pass to Santi who would do his magic forwards.Xhaka is poor,infact very poor defensive wise.When he is trying to recover iam always worried that a Yellow or red Card situation is about to happen.Everyone knows that,even the 3 managers he has had at arsenal so far.This means they put him in the team for another purpose,not defending.He knows how to put a good amount of weight to his long pass.Transitioning from defence to attack.The other person with this quality is also equally disliked.Thats Luiz David

  10. I still think we’re too slow from defence to attack & Xhaka is part of the reason why – a sideways or backwards pass is good for the stats but loses all the pace we possess up front. Looks good against average PL sides, but caught out against the top ones. We’re mediocre, and the risk is we accept good performances not great, as we expected in the past

  11. Lack of forward passes corrolate With lack of movement from forwards and offensive players.

    Xhaka is awesome at breaking the lines with forward passes when there is good movement. We tend to lack good off the ball movement a bit too much.

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