Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka was in astonishing form for Switzerland last night as he helped his side to eliminate current World Champions France from Euro 2020.
The 28 year-old is currently being linked with a move to Roma, with Jose Mourinho claimed to be an admirer, and his performance last night will certainly not have deterred the Portuguese manager, with Xhaka rightly being awarded the Star of the Match award.
The heartbeat of the #SUI midfield, well deserved Star Of The Match for Granit Xhaka 👏 pic.twitter.com/oAOUIGhcXS
— CBS Sports Golazo (@CBSSportsGolazo) June 28, 2021
Granit was key in both attack and defence, with his passing accuracy on point also, completing all eight of his long passes also, and his assist for the goal which saved their hopes of staying in the competition late on can’t have hurt his performance rating.
Granit Xhaka's game by numbers for #SUI vs. #FRA:
92% passing accuracy
17 final ⅓ entries
8/8 long balls
5 ball recoveries
3 chances created
3 fouls won
3 interceptions
2/2 through-balls
2 aerials won
2 clearances
1 block
1 assistSimply sensational. pic.twitter.com/Ae8uV2ROvj
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) June 28, 2021
Will Xhaka’s performance help the Gunners to retrieve their full asking price, or could we reconsider our stance?
Patrick
Arsenal should add at least 10M to his transfer fee. If roles were reversed, Roma will be demanding at least an additional 20M based on that performance alone.
We need to keep this guy for a season more
I know this guy has his shortcomings which are more exposed in the PL than at the Euro’s which to me are played at a lower level than the PL. But he has a big personality and is a leader whether we like it or not. When he leaves we will miss a big personality who is liked by his teammates.
He is captain of Switzerland and has been liked by our last three managers. To sell him for less than 25 million would be a mistake. His game is suited for Series A.
We need to keep him. There is a good reason why every coach wants him on his team. Arsenal will regret if they sell Xhaka.
I tell alot of people that Granit xhaka isn’t Arsenal’s problem but they won’t listen. I know not why alot of AFC fans strongly dislike Granit, he been accused of being too slow and so what! is paul pogba a fast player? Was kante not on the field yesterday? xhaka winning the man of the match in a game that had top footballers in mbappe, kante, paul pogba, giroud, benzema, strongly suggest that he is a good player. His passing accuracy in yesterday’s match was 2nd to none.
If Arsenal sells xhaka after yesterday’s performance then I would be seeing them as an unserious club. We will regret it, if xhaka leaves eventually. We can get the best of xhaka by signing a new defensive midfielder and not by selling him, thereby, creating competition in that pos. But we are all clamouring that he should be sold without putting his qualities in consideration. Willock was loaned to newcastle becos he was considered as “not good enough” and now we can see how extremely good he is.
I am begging those at Arsenal that they should reconsider their stance on xhaka and keep him for another season, get new players in, we don’t need ben white, chambers is better than him.
O.T.S I understand your passion for Xhaka although I don’t share it.
But you can not say we should keep Xhaka based on yesterday’s game. You don’t buy or sell a player based on one performance.
Xhaka is a good player and not our biggest problem but if we want to increase our grip on midfield we need to upgrade him rather than Partey. However, it would be stupid to move sideways by selling him without replacing him with a “proven” better partner for Partey.
Bissouma could be an upgrade. He seems to have greater mobility but I fear he might have less leadership and character. Partey also doesn’t seem like a leader and in midfield it would be nice to have a leader.
But u know that if it was another player that performed the way xhaka did yesterday, we fans might be suggesting that Arsenal should sign him. We should learn to cherish what we have and stop underrating our players.
Thus 120% true we need to keep our best players
People have very short and selective memories with xhaka. He disgraced the shirt and the fans many times and made serious errors of judgement that cost us many times.
Xhaka Should be the last player Arsenal is thinking of selling this season, we have players like Willian, I still don’t understand why, this guy was one of our best player last season he play more games than others and did well, and we all saw what he did in Switzerland team against France, a players like these are very difficult to replace Arsenal should learn from their past mistake
I concur
Our midfield was not convincing last season and it begins with the two DM’s. Partey is one and Xhaka was the other. If we want to upgrade our midfield it makes the most sense to upgrade Xhaka whose lack of pace and closing speed gets exposed at times in the PL. Willian does not figure in the conversation.
Get Auba out of Arsenal, bellerin, kolasinac they are bad influence on young players. Willian is just suffering from their misfortune.
Wow. Arsenal fans are amazing. All through, some of us have been saying the price is too low and some have have been saying we should pay Roma to take him. Do you know how much we’d be charged right now to sign him?
After one game. Sighs
I keep asking why we want him out. We can’t possibly have a team of Saka-type players. We need a mix of strength, leadership, technique, versatility, speed and grit with a whole lot of determination from all concerned. I believe Xhaka has his role to play in our squad and we should never sell him.
How on earth did Mou decide to get him? #😡angry 😡
One good performance and to some Xhaka is the new Xavi…. deluded….
To me he flatters to deceive. He is error prone and inconsistent to my liking
@bernado- totally correct. Internationals and European football is played at a far lower pace than the EPL. Xhaka is a good footballer and played well last night. But how often has he influenced Premiere League games playing for Arsenal?
The players he played against are the “creme de la creme ” of the premier league and world football. Kante,Pogba,Kimpembe,Lenglet,Pvard,Greizmann,Mbappe.
I don’t think the quality argument in terms of quality of play or quality of players holds water.
He plays nearly deepest for us. He doesn’t really have to influence games too visibly. We talk about errors, but over the last two seasons, I believe even at arsenal alone, he’s definitely behind the likes of Auba and Ceballos in points lost from defensive errors. No one is saying he’s the new Xavi. People just finally acknowledged what he can do because it was in a situation where he was expected to fail. Just wait a while and it will be forgotten, but in his arsenal career, I’ve seen him dominate the chealsea midfield more than once, I’ve seen him dominate man utd more than once , I don’t claim he’s the best, I just think he’s very under appreciated.
@Phil
You’re havin a laugh ain’t ya….The Internationals are played at a higher more gruelling pace than the EPL, due to the fact that a nations pride is at stake. The only difference between the EPL and other Leagues is, the EPl play more games with a shorter seasonal break…
NY_Gunner, It is YOU who are “havin a laugh” It is widely accepted everywhere that the Prem is FAR faster and more frantic than mostly slow paced international football. Try watching both sometime and then you will know!
I CAN HARDLY BELIEVE YOUR NAIVETY ON THIS SUBJECT!
Kindly name me a player that doesn’t make mistake
Even before the Europe 2020 I never wanted xhaka to be sold. I think only few have seen how better he is when he played with Thomas party. We still need a creative defensive midfielder. We really don’t center back in person of bin white, let the give saliba a chance.
Xhaka did play well last night and I think international football and slower paced leagues like serie a suit him where you get more time on the ball to make passes like he did for the equaliser but in premier league you don’t often get that luxury. He has been scapegoat but he has also deserved criticism at times. His is suspended for the next game so maybe his transfer can now get completed P.s Roma should have to pay at least £25m for him
100% agree
Do the best players in the world just decide to play slower at international tournaments?
I am waiting for him to respond to your question Joe.
I’m surprised as to how the likes of Mbappe, Benzema, Kante, and others became slow because it’s an international tourney
Eddie, yes in isolation the players you mentioned are not slow but france’s overall the team play was slow and their midfield was vacant when xhaka slipped through the pass for the equaliser.
@joe No they don’t decided to ‘play slower’ as an individual choice. If you cannot differentiate between the premier league end to end basketball style which exposes xhaka weaknesses to say serie a where games a less open then that’s your prerogative.
I won’t be losing any sleep over Xhaka leaving. Yes he was fantastic last night – how i wish we’d seen more of those displays! – but he’s been with us for 5 years, I think it’s best for both parties if we all move on.
Good luck to him… now let’s put the peanuts we receive for him to good use 😄
Agree it is best for both parties to move on.
Disagree that we haven’t seen him put in more than a few displays like that for Arsenal. Folks want to believe that Xhaka only passes sideways and backwards so they don’t believe their lying eyes when he plays like he did last night for us.
Wish him nothing but success at Roma and a shame he missed the QF against Spain.
He plays games like that for arsenal, an average of 5 times a season and that is me being generous. In over 40 games that we play, he turns up like that an average of 5 to 7 times and you want us to continue with that? No wonder we are where we are. I wasn’t surprised by his display yesterday. That’s classic xhaka, turn up as the star of one game against even big opponents and flop the very next.. Did u see him put in the same display for Switzerland at the euros up until yesterday? Case in point.
I’m with you on that Sue. Imagine if we decide to keep flopps because they had one great game. Even Elneney had a world class game against utd at old Trafford, does that mean he should be our starting midfielder. Great game last night xhaka, but bye. Can’t believe one game has given many fans amnesia on how many games he has single handedly cost us an arsenal player over the years. It’s like muatafi suddenly playing a MOTM display for Germany and we all want him back.
Lolss..
I knew Some Arsenal fans will be carried away after Xhaka’s performance yesterday..
He still has to LEAVE!!
He is still not MOBILE enough!!
A Right-footed midfielder to partner Thomas Partey is non-negotiable for us, going into d new season!!
Bissouma, Lokonga, Renato Sanchez, Any of these Guys should we Grab!!🙏🙏
👍👍
Anything less than £25m for Granit would be criminal. If Roma’s is the only bid come the last week of the window, fine, otherwise I believe he could attract enough interest for this price tag to be met.
Look! Yes xhaka did well last night but all swizz players did, he wasn’t on his own! All the Swizz players haven’t become world class over night, they just clicked. We all know what xhaka is like 99% of the time, we have had to put up with his lack of talent for 5 years. Plus is he missing next game for too many yellows? Good luck to him at Roma and bye bye! He is great for the Swizz and crap for us. End of!
👍👍
If he is such crap I wonder why three successive
Arsenal managers always played him when he was available. Of course fans are entitled to their opinion but is it not presumptuous for them to think they know better than the manager. Xhaka is certainly not world class, however even if he was he would not have been able to perform well in what, and the league position does not lie, a very average Arsenal squad. With many saying we need a upgrade to play with Thomas Partey, that player would cost more than that we get for Xhaka with no guarantee that he will succeed in the IPL. Anyway the jury is out on Partey as he did not convince many at the end of the season.
Yes, i wonder about those managers also but they did get the sack or finished poorly in the league, so they weren’t that correct in their decisions.
So you’re saying Xhaka got them the sack?
Then we can as well buy Ronaldo and Messi without signing any more players cos Xhaka is the only problem.
If someone is limited in technical ability, then I thought most obviously he’s not good enough for a top team.
Logic and Arsenal fans are very far apart…
Teams that win trophies have midfield players who are simply too good on the ball; Xhaka isn’t one of them.
Man City: Debruyne.Fernandinho.Gundogan
Chelsea: Kovacic. Kante. Joginho
Liverpool: Thiago.. Fabinho.. Wijnaldum
Look at even Real, Bayern, Barcelona, PSG etc their midfields are full of technical players.
Xhaka still won’t cut it for me, I don’t buy that one off performance.
PatrickWell, those damning stats “prove” that the many Gooners like me who have never rated Xhaka at all and still don’t were undoubtedly wrong all along!
iT MUST HAVE BEEN FALSE IMAGINATION ALL ALONG, THAT HIS STATUESQUE IMMOBILITY AND SLOW PLAY AND TOTAL LACK OF PACE IN MOVEMENT AND PASSING DID NOT ACTUALLY EXIST.
Or PERHAPS that last sentence is pure sarcasm and those who cannot wait to see the back of Xhaka for good were correct all along! I
I leave you to decide which of those possibilities I truly mean.
I duly note that most Gooners by far believe the sarcasm paragraph is true.
BTW, so do I!
Jon, i do think 5 years is long enough for the relationship, whatever your views on xhaka, to end. We wont miss him and he wont miss us.
Won’t miss him neither but I will never share Jon fox idea about Xhaka cos Xhaka is better than that.
For Xhaka to start for all our managers, it means he’s doing something better than the rest.
So why not sell the rest and buy a starter and Xhaka drop to the bench?
That is what big team do.
They buy a starter to make a starter sit on bench not buying a starter to make a bench warm the same bench.
So why not buy Bissouma to bench Xhaka and sell Elneny.
If we’re buying Bissouma and Lonkonga, then is good but if we’re buying one, then we’re still not making a different.
We don’t even know if Bissouma will kill it here. That you’ve been playing in the EPL don’t make you automatically inform all through.
Darren Bent to Tottenham
Torres to Chelsea
King to Everton
Walcott to Everton and many more.
So what makes you think Bissouma will click immediately?
So if he doesn’t click, we’re back to square 1.
So I prefer we retain Xhaka and Buy Bissouma.
Bobs No matter what you prefer , XHAKA WILL BE LEAVING THIS SUMMER AND GOOD RIDDANCE I SAY!
This immobile tortoise has plagued us far too long and must go, which he WILL, MERCIFULLY!
The important thing is that Granit Xhaka wants to leave and he is not that good that Arsenal should fight to keep him.
His performance against France should enhance his valuation and Arsenal should get Roma to pay the money they want.
Arsenal could get a ready made replacement for Xhaka in RB Leipzig’s Marcel Sabitzer, in the last year of his contract for €17 million. The Austrian international has spent 7 years at Leipzig and has refused to sign a new contract. He is an excellent midfielder, who works hard, never hides, a good tackler and ball winner and provides goals and assists.
At 27 he is in his prime and priced right for Arsenal. Now that Austria are eliminated from the Euros, Arsenal should make a move!