Xhaka was greatly missed: Vieira still far too green
Many have been saying that Arsenal is nothing without William Saliba. Well, it seems that even without Xhaka, it is hard to see any fluidity in Arsenal’s midfield. The Swiss international may not be seen as brilliant as Partey and Odegaard are, but he is criminally underrated and he undoubtedly brings some balance to Arteta’s midfield.
Against Southampton, due to illness, Xhaka wasn’t available for selection, so Arteta decided to give Fabio Vieira a chance, hoping the 2022 summer recruit would step up. Well, to cut a long story short, Vieira didn’t rise to the occasion; he was poor.
It took Arteta 57 minutes to realise nothing good would come from Vieira being on the pitch. Before being subbed off, ex-PL star Yanick Bolasie was already calling for Arteta to bench the former Porto man, saying, “We need to get Jorginho on for Viera; he looks too nervous for this type of game; we need someone to control the passing in the middle.”
Bolasie’s call was answered, but Arteta didn’t bring on Jorginho for him; instead, he introduced Trossard to the match. Bootomline: Arsenal really needed Xhaka against Southampton, and the tweet below is what every Gooner now understands about Xhaka.
Arsenal have now gone three games winless with three draws, which is not a nice return of results for their league title ambitions. Having played two more games than City, the Gunners are at risk of missing out on lifting their first league title in years if City don’t drop points, and they don’t win each one of their remaining fixtures.
Winning the PL wasn’t going to be easy, but Arsenal can still win it by not dropping any other points, which means beating teams like Manchester City, Chelsea, and Newcastle, who are among their remaining fixtures.
Darren N
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