Fair game for Granit Xhaka.
He’s someone I’ve had some frustrations with over the years, but I admit it when it’s due: he’s performing at a very high level right now. I don’t think it’s just this season either, his good form comes in some way and I think that also has to be recognized.
The fact that fans regularly chant his name, essentially for the first time in his Arsenal career, tells you that a relationship that once seemed damaged beyond repair has now been healed. Not for everyone, of course. Your mileage may vary depending on how you view the events of October 2019 during that Crystal Palace game, but without excusing anything, I always felt that moment was something of a lightning rod for more far-reaching frustrations, both for the fans and the player. The volcanic eruption had been brewing below the surface for some time.
Still, if you had told me then that a few years later, Xhaka would wear the captain’s armband (as she did on Sunday) and traveling fans would sing her name, I think I would have suggested that your time machine was a bit flawed. But there it’s exactly where we are, and at a time when there’s a lot of positivity around Arsenal, this is another element that I think says a lot about how the fans feel at the moment.
The Granit Xhaka Redemption is not a story I would have spent a lot of time on, and it hasn’t been easy at all times. There have been a few red cards, some of which, to be fair, were definitely Granit Xhaka red and not regular red, but rightly or wrongly, if anyone knows the ITWGX index (If that was Granit Xhaka), then it’s Granit Xhaka . Last summer there was some serious flirting with Roma, and it looked like he might go, but throughout Mikel Arteta he has been a constant.
As other players have left, often under difficult circumstances, he has always wanted Xhaka to stay and he deserves some credit for this current form and influence the Swiss international has on the team at the moment. I suspect the manager sees something of himself in Xhaka. A super-professional, hard-working midfielder who is talented, has an eye for the pass, can make things work and occasionally break the belt from outside the box; but that he exists just below top-tier talent. Which is not a criticism, it’s just the reality.
On that basis, what Arteta is getting out of Xhaka in this ‘new’ position is really something, and certainly more than he bargained for. I thought Ian Wright’s review of him in MOTD2 the other night (which you can find at the top of the video page here) excellently highlighted how well he’s playing this role. Not only does he look more mobile, moving around the pitch and into areas we rarely saw him in, but he’s quicker on the ball, which is where I had the most doubts about him. It wasn’t a big case, I thought he couldn’t do it, but because of where he used to take possession, he hadn’t really done it before and he certainly played with more touches than now.
Martinelli’s early chance against Brentford is a good example of how this role change is effective. As we move down the right he is in our half but he runs forward, the quick feet of both him and Martinelli create the opportunity, and it was a shame the Brazilian slipped. Gabriel Jesus’ assist was first class, and I think there is an element of teams that don’t really expect Xhaka to be a threat in these areas of the pitch, and it will be interesting to see if there is more of a defensive focus on him in the future. .
I remember when we hired him in 2016, Arsene Wenger was asked about the role he saw him in and he said:
Personally, I prefer him as a box-to-box player, because he has the engine, the power, the long pass, he likes to go deep and distribute the game. I think he also has the engine to make an impact with his runs.
It was always a bit confusing to me that she seemed out of place in this one, because we never really saw Xhaka in that kind of role. Arsene himself even retracted that after a while, calling him a defensive midfielder (among other things), but it seems his first instincts were absolutely correct.
Regardless, this fine form can last for a long time, especially as it’s hard not to be worried about the injury history of our other senior first-choice central midfielder. I also liked the quote from him, after the Brentford game, where he spoke about the perception of Arsenal at the moment:
The teams are respecting us much more and are seeing us differently. It’s good, but nothing to be too proud of, as there’s still a long way to go.
I don’t know if we’ve completely turned the tables, but I do think the idea of ​​Arsenal as a soft touch is getting smaller and smaller in the rear-view mirror. Many still do, of course, but there’s a reason some of the half-ass pundits complain about giving a 15-year-old a debut: It’s because that’s all they can find to be negative about, and even that it’s a straw of the highest order of miserable imbeciles.
Keep going so.
