The line up of former players turned pundits criticising Granit Xhaka for his foul on Tottenham’s Son Heung-min that led to a penalty is starting to become a little hysterical.
Yes, he made a huge error of judgement and he has rightly been ripped to shreds for it but there comes a time when people need to move on, it is not as if he jumped into to a crowd of fans doing a Bruce Lee or bit an opponent or even racially abused a fellow professional.
Former Gunners Ian Wright, Martin Keown and Paul Merson have all had their say obviously, they literally comment on everything Arsenal related and of course, former Man Utd defender Gary Neville has had his say also.
“This is something you learn in your first week when you become professional football stay on feet at all times, especially in your box. That’s such a big invitation. ‘It’s an obvious penalty. it’s such an invitation for Son to go to ground – even if he doesn’t make contact with him and then the penalty is sublime, Neville said.
“It’s not a case of putting it in the corner for Kane. It’s a case of hitting the side netting. But Xhaka has got to have a look… he’s 26 years old! ‘That’s something you learn in your first week as a professional footballer. Disgraceful.”
Xhaka has tried to defend himself but even then he made a bad situation worse by indicating that it was the forwards to blame for the failure to win the game.
Speaking to Swiss publication Blick, Xhaka said ‘It’s part of football, there are a lot of people that talk a lot. ‘I cannot influence anything and I do not want to. It is not my business. ‘My job is to perform on the pitch.’
Xhaka added: ‘I know that I made a mistake in the penalty. ‘But nobody talks about the many opportunities we have made, only about the mistakes.
It is now a week since the game and it really is time to move on, I thought what David Luiz did at Liverpool was worse because of the timing of his ridiculous shirt pull on Mo Salah, I mean, who does that so soon after half time but regardless, people have moved on.
Seems to me that Xhaka is now the new player to kick around and while that is to be expected from Arsenal fans you would expect former players to understand that there comes a point when enough is enough.