We do not see Arsene Wenger laying into the Arsenal players, ever, and he does not even like to talk about any individual who might have just had a bad game. The Frenchman will pick out areas where Arsenal have not played well, such as defence or creating or finishing chances, but rarely does he point to one player in particular.
But that is what Wenger did after the away defeat to Stoke City on Saturday, even though he did not use the name of Granit Xhaka, because it was the Swiss international who made the stupid mistake of giving the ball away under no real pressure that the boss spoke about in his post match comments reported by The Guardian.
He said, “This is a kind of night when you are angry because not only did we not score for the number of chances we had, we made stupid mistakes centrally – first by losing the ball and then we didn’t defend properly for the goal.”
That sloppy pass by the central midfielder cost Arsenal the game and a very similar one against Leicester City in the opening EPL match almost cost us points as well. I also think that the not defending properly accusation from our manager included Xhaka as he did not break his neck to track back and make up for the error.
So if Wenger is criticising this player do you think he means to drop him from the team for a while, or at least for our trip to Anfield to face Liverpool on Sunday? Arsenal do have options in that position, with Elneny, Ramsey and the fit again Coquelin, so is it time for Xhaka to step aside until he can sort himself out?
Bob.