Managers are judged by their results and rightfully so, there is no better metric at the top level and just making progress season after season is simply not enough, not when you are a top-six team.
To achieve consistently good results and win silverware difficult decisions have to be made, managers have to be ruthless and know when to be brutal with certain players.
If Unai Emery does not make the decision to drop Granit Xhaka and accept that he can no longer be considered first-team material then he reduces his chances of achieving those consistently good results and winning silverware.
You cannot carry passengers at the top level and that is exactly what the Swiss international is now.
It is becoming more and more difficult to understand why Emery sticks with Xhaka and it will get to a point where his job could be at risk. If you keep selecting players that cost you points then you have to answer for that.
If Emery cannot make the hard decision to discard his captain then the board will step in and for them making the hard decisions is all in a days work.
It is not a case of dropping Xhaka or you lose your job, it is the failure to identify the weakness and deal with it that will bite you in the butt.
Xhaka is not really the issue here, to be honest, it could be David Luiz or Ainsely Maitland-Niles or whoever, if a player is not good for the team then the manager has to see that very early on.
The truth is Emery failed to see that until it was too late with Mustafi, once is bad enough but twice and then questions will be asked.
I feel we are at the stage where Emery is starting to put his job at risk continuing to select Xhaka.