There were a lot of unhappy Arsenal fans this weekend when Arsene Wenger named the out of form Granit Xhaka in the side that faced Southampton while leaving Jack Wilshere on the bench. The Englishman has been performing well in the Europa League and the calls for Wenger to promote him was becoming overwhelming.
Wenger finally listened and put him on for the last 20 minutes of the game, and Jack, who has been begging Wenger to give him some top League playing time to help him get into Gareth Southgate’s England team, finally got a chance to impress.
Wilshere was his usual aggressive self and he now needs to build up his top flight match fitness. He was certainly happy to get back on the pitch and the home fans cheered him onto the pitch. “I’m enjoying it,” he said. “I’m enjoying playing and I want to play as much as I can. I’ve said before that I’ve missed way too much football and I’m just enjoying it at the minute.”
The bad news is that Xhaka’s usual partner in midfield, Aaron Ramsey, pulled his hamstring ten minutes before the end of the game, but Wenger couldn’t take him off as he had already made all his substitions. With a game every three days for the next couple of weeks then Wenger will have little choice but to play Wilshere more often in the games coming up. As Ramsey is out injured and Xhaka woefully out of form at the moment, I am hoping like mad to see Wilshere line up alongside Coquelin to try and brighten up our midfield.
Admin
Wilshere and Coquelin, yeah, why not aye! perhaps in a 4-3-3 whilst we’re at it as well, something for gods sake!
and this pathetic slanty smile was not the face i was pulling when i wrote this. it was more of an expression combining anger, exasperation and a sort of tired weariness , you know! The arsenal fan Christmas face!
Although Ramsey has made slight improvements of late, I still think it’s great news that Wenger cannot pick him. I don’t like to see players injured, but unfortunately it’s the only effective way to remove rubbish players, and/or out of form players from the starting line up, because Wenger consistently refuses to take into account ability, and/or form when picking his team. If Wenger DID take these into account, then Xhaka would have been dropped a long time ago. So the only way Xhaka’s getting dropped is if he gets injured, or suspended.
I would like to see Elneny, and Wilshere given a run in central midfield. It’s not exactly a fantastic option, but I honestly do not think we could get much worse at the moment.
Xhaka is all of a sudden the scape goat for whatever goes wrong in every game. It is so easy to put the blame on him but he’s playing in a midfield where everyone praises Ramsey for his attacking threat but blame Xhaka when he’s exposed with 3 men v him alone.
We’ve been below par recently and I don’t see anybody calling for Sanchez, Koscielny, Bellerin or Mustafi’s head but let’s all blame it on Xhaka. I’ve seen it all too much to realize tha all of who is blaming him now will be praising him if he should have a few good run of games. I’ve seen it with Ozil, Giroud, Koscielny and even Ramsey. I believe fans who doesn’t even know how to kick a ball are the best sets of coaches but until they try to kick a ball then they will understand. I guess it is your business to criticize otherwise you wouldn’t be a fan.
well said my man
Xhaka is not our biggest problem and not one player specifically is to blame for our poor defending. Defensively we are a poorly coached team and that is on the staff.
Having said that no one can claim Xhaka is the complete defensive midfield player. He lacks closing speed and ability to tackle as well as suspect positional awareness and temperament.
He is a great passer of the ball but can’t dribble his way out of trouble nor is he physically imposing. Even if the rest of the team plays well he doesn’t appear to be the type of player who can boss a midfield against the top teams.
Xhaka was a mistake if you consider what we paid for him the some of the other midfield players that went in the same window or before. I would love someone to explain to me why he was a great investment because I don’t see it.
Coquelin and Wilshere to brighten up our midfield? Nothing against Jack but I think injuries have taken their toll, he’s lost that spark that he had a few years ago. As for Coquelin, he has never been PL standard, tries hard but lacks class and technique. A fit Ramsey is still the best option so we are going to miss him. I would prefer Elneny to Coq, at least he can pass a ball. I had great hopes for Xhaka who has a fantastic left foot but is so inconsistent especially in big matches and does not know how to defend. Depressing isn’t it?
Answer? Make do until AW decides to leave then get a manager who understands that a good defence is a priority, AW seems to have forgotten this. What scares me is what do we do next season without Ozil and Sanchez and a joke of a defence. I wonder when we don’t finish in the top 4 for 2 seasons running if AW decides to do the right thing? Don’t hold your breath!!!
guys jack has barely played football in the last five years. We are using him cautiously and am happy with that he just played 90 mins vs bate, if he started vs soton we could be talking about another injury layoff. let him take his and his priority is to get back to playing football not getting into the england team. That to me shows he is getting his prioritys wrong.
Its either Xhaka or Wilshire, otherwise the center midfield will be unbalanced.
But Wenger is still the manager! Nothing is going to change.
Tales as old as time
I am praying to the Gods of arsenal GX be injured. He has made us lose a lot of points. But Wenger loves shhhht playz lyk cech