“Xhaka helped him I think.” – Campbell disagrees with Keown

Kevin Campbell reckons that Granit Xhaka helped saved Kieran Tierney from being sent off after Arsenal’s game against Leeds last weekend.

Tierney had been incensed by Ezgjan Alioski who had caused Nicolas Pepe to be sent off in the game.

The Scotsman seemed to be waiting for the final whistle before confronting the north Macedonian international.

After the final whistle, he did exactly that. Alioski was standing with Xhaka at the time when Tierney approached him.

The former Arsenal captain seemed to be taking sides with the Leeds man, but Campbell sees it differently and he told Football Insider that Xhaka was actually protecting his teammate from getting into trouble.

Martin Keown had written in the Daily Mail that Tierney was unhappy with Xhaka for having his arms around Alioski, but Campbell disagrees.

He was asked if he supports his former teammate’s view and he said: “Was it at Granit Xhaka or was it at Alioski?

“As far as I am concerned, Xhaka was saving Kieran Tierney from potentially getting sent off. That is all you need after the final whistle, losing our regular left-back when you have already had one man sent off.

“No – Xhaka was trying to be the peacemaker. He was trying to help his teammate out.

“All of this ‘His arms were round Alioski’ – we do not know what he was saying to him. Nobody knows.

“Xhaka could have been giving him a mouthful but in a nice way. Everybody thinks he was pallying up to him but we do not know.

“Tierney is a fiery character and Xhaka used his experience. Xhaka helped him I think.”  

Tags Granit Xhaka Kevin Campbell Kieran Tierney

6 Comments

  1. Agree with Sol. Xhaka is not that friendly when you have his team mate out. Before now he would have been the next guy down the channel, instead we saw his experience come into play. I believe Aloiski had mouthful from him albeit differently. Simply unusual of Xhaka.

  2. Agree with Kevin Campbell. Xhaka was acting as the peacemaker and showed his maturity and experience by protecting a fired up Tierney from being sent off. Good work Xhaka!

  3. I also agree that Xhaka was the peacemaker and that he possibly -as we will never now know for sure – saved Tierney from further trouble and a possible red card. I do not promote hot headedness but understand the passion that many young players feel about their team and not being cheated , as Aloiski certainly DID cheat by his play acting.

    I say this even though what Pepe did was, as MA courageously and astutely said, “Unacceptable”.

  4. Obviously Alioski and Xhaka are good friends, anyone should be able to see that, people trying to make rumours are stupid, when Alioski got to Euros with Macedonia Xhaka congratulated him. Also Tierney was stupid to do what he did, what was he going to do? , he acted like an idiot and looked like a drunk being lead away. Also all the pundits and Arsenal fans are wrong to think Alioski cheated, in what way was it cheating?, he went down because he was head butted, hard or not hard, he still got head butted. If Alioski didn’t go down, nothing would have been done about it, Pepe would have got away with it, he deserved the red card. Also Alioski could have done it for himself, Alioski could have retaliated if he didn’t go down, then got himself sent off too. Alioski was right to do what he did, only Arsenal would disagree.The whole of Arsenal got Alioski’d

    1. Well my friend, obviously no saints are football fans, so fan opinions will always be biased towards their club. Also I dont agree with you regarding the cheating part, as for me that is clearly cheating. So there you go, fan opinion!

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