Country: England
Pretty sure that’s what happening with the managers too.I think it's his handsomeness that keeps making me want to give him more chances
Im not a fan but he’s trying and doing well at the moment, I can’t complain.
Pretty sure that’s what happening with the managers too.I think it's his handsomeness that keeps making me want to give him more chances
Wenger had played him there a few times. Makes sense as you could play from the back with him.I'm wondering if Xhaka's natural position might be at CB? If only he could iron out going to ground too rashly and he trained there? He lacks pace, mobility and agility as a midfielder. He has a magnificent left peg and ball player CB's, particularly left-sided ones, are much in demand in today's game.
The lad has already been moved into a false 3 role with the inverted full backs...
Granit Xhaka wore an invisible armband on his night of redemption
By Amy Lawrence
There was a time when redemption seemed impossible. When Granit Xhaka walked slowly and furiously off the Emirates pitch and into an emotionally loaded dispute with the Arsenal supporters in October, never felt reason to offer an apology, lost the captaincy and was keen to leave the club, this kind of night felt a million miles away.
At Chelsea, on a night demanding absolute commitment to the cause, he led.
Arsenal found themselves in an all-too-familiar situation — up against it, pressurised, away from home facing a task they made extra-difficult courtesy of a defensive fiasco. With David Luiz dismissed and Shkodran Mustafi burdened by the assist for the red card, Xhaka took control.
He stepped up and slotted back into the centre of defence to guide a ramshackle back four through a tumultuous match. That rearguard comprised a right-back who has battled to regain form and fitness after a cruciate ligament injury, an error prone centre-back who Arsenal tried but failed to offload last summer, Xhaka as the reshuffled midfielder and a teenage winger.
Xhaka marshalled, intercepted, steadied, stayed the furthest back to see the full picture in front of him, cajoled all around. He prioritised concentration and discipline and urged the same of his team-mates. He was a flurry of orders, with vocal instructions and pointed gestures. He put in a central defensive masterclass. He wore an invisible armband.
It went unnoticed, actually, that Xhaka was briefly Arsenal’s captain (something nobody thought they would see again) during their last away game at Crystal Palace. With Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang sent off, when next-in-line Alexandre Lacazette was substituted late on he went to give the armband to the ex-skipper. Xhaka plainly didn’t want it. Sokratis yelled at him to put it on. A little reluctantly, he slid it up his arm.
Mindful of bridges not conclusively mended he made sure to remove it at the end of the match before going to applaud the section of visiting fans, perhaps not feeling it was appropriate. The wounds are still recent enough that there was no need to risk opening anything up.
Xhaka is an emotional person, and these have been such profound and unpredictable months. At home he has been getting used to life with a new baby. At work, he spent a lot of time trying to come out the other side of the incident where everything boiled over in terms of his relationship with the supporters. In an interview with Swiss newspaper Blick he described it as “very hurtful and frustrating… abnormal and excessive… no justification for it.”
Normality was rebuilt slowly, bit by bit. After some hard conversations with former coach Unai Emery and a break, he returned to training, then to matches. The reception was initially muted. Perhaps both sides quietly acknowledged that nobody had covered themselves in glory but it made sense to make the best of it.
One of the hallmarks of Mikel Arteta’s brief time in charge of Arsenal is how he has reinvigorated and reinspired players who had lost their way. Early meetings with Xhaka proved encouraging. Following his influence on the team at Stamford Bridge, Arteta spoke glowingly of a player who on Tuesday night defined certain qualities he demands from his team. Accountability. Responsibility. Desire. Arteta smashed his fists together at one point to emphasise how Xhaka delivered with everything he has got.
“From day one, I spoke with him,” Arteta explained. “Obviously his mind was a little bit varied after a lot of things that happened to him in his life and his family. I tried to convince him that it was the right place for him to play. I wanted to try to give him the opportunity to try to enjoy playing football again. Everything I ask him to do, every training session, he’s like this and is willing to do it. The moment I put him there (in defence) I don’t know how well he was going to do but he was going to put everything in. He was great.”
For Arteta, that was an example of what he wants across the club in every avenue from every person that works there. He spent a day last week at the Highbury House offices next to the Emirates putting that message across to all the departments who do their daily work there.
With the game at Chelsea winding down and the 10 men feeling their efforts in their aching muscles, Lucas Torreira collapsed with exhaustion. Gabriel Martinelli sunk down on his haunches. Xhaka marched over to where Hector Bellerin, Matteo Guendouzi and Mustafi were debating among themselves and took charge of the heated conversation. Orders were given. The others accepted and got on with it.
Stripped back, without context or the pulsating tension of a match in real time, the history books will have this a point earned by a team lying 10th in the Premier League table. But this was one of those matches that had an impact which felt pivotal enough to mean something special from an Arsenal perspective. The crazed scenes in the away end symbolised that. They had all been waiting for a moment to feel like something important was changing at their club.
For so long, Arsenal carried that expectancy that when something went wrong away from home, it was invariably enough to derail the team. Instead, this team pounded through a brick wall for each other. Xhaka’s performance embodied that different mentality. He wasn’t prepared to go through the motions and let defeat happen.
To an extent that attitude stemmed from Arteta and the mood he is creating. He was courageous in his decision making. For a young coach in his eighth game in the job, it must have been tempting to make the obvious move to throw on a centre-back and withdraw a more attacking player as soon as Luiz was sent off after 26 minutes. But he waited. He gambled. He stayed open-minded and positive. He restructured hoping to keep some counter-attacking threat on the pitch and saw his team immediately push up a gear and improve under the circumstances.
Martinelli was courageous. His goal was accompanied by the soundtrack of thousands of gasps as he careered forward with the confidence of a boy who 100 per cent expects to score.
Bellerin was courageous. Captain on the night in only his fourth Premier League performance of the season after a stop-start comeback from serious injury suffered a year ago, he possessed that desire to go for something spectacular so late in the game when his legs should have been shaking from the effort he put in. His goal from the edge of the box made it 2-2.
Heck, even Mustafi was courageous in a way to carry on and make some important blocks when part of him must have felt like swapping places with Luiz and getting away from all the attention after his excruciating first-half error led to the red card.
It was too early for Arteta to get tempted into proclaiming the performance a stepping stone to something new. He was far too smart for that. If anything it gave him the opportunity to dole out a little reminder that much less effort than that won’t be tolerated.
“I hope they take it in a good way and they say, ‘OK, from here we move to a different level’ and not say, ‘We’ve done it at Chelsea, now we go somewhere else and it will be easy.’ I will not let them think that.” He flashed one of those charming but slightly menacing smiles.
That’s what Arsenal have needed for ages. Some menace to go with the idea they want football to be charming.
Xhaka was one of the last to leave the pitch. He shook hands with all and sundry and looked a picture of contentment as he and Mesut Özil strolled, all smiles, towards the away fans to exchange applause.
Who knows what remains of Xhaka’s story at Arsenal but for that individual display of leadership he regained full respect.
Not at all i loved his performance yesterday. If our players can show mentality like yesterday we wouldn't be 10th that what I'm frustrated aboutSo he delivered a boring cliché and you decide to throw some sh1t at him because of that despite his performance. Stop trying to find things to complain about when it comes to Xhaka.
We played so much better with him in CB than CM, maybe that's his more natural position? You get away with being slow and immobile in CB.
Still don't rate him tho.
We played so much better with him in CB than CM, maybe that's his more natural position? You get away with being slow and immobile in CB.
Still don't rate him tho.
Wenger had played him there a few times. Makes sense as you could play from the back with him.
He’s too rash though, fouls too much to be playing cb everytime.
I actually think the biggest benefit to him playing CB yesterday was that it meant he wasn't playing CM.We played so much better with him in CB than CM, maybe that's his more natural position? You get away with being slow and immobile in CB.
Still don't rate him tho.
Managers love him because ability and quality aside he's an insane professional. Teachers pet if you will.Pretty sure that’s what happening with the managers too.
Whereas, Sokratis, Mustafi & an unfit Holding in a high line is unimpeachable sanity....People shouldn't get excited over the fact he looked good at cb, the fact he went there when we were down to 10 men meant we were playing deep which is why he looked good there as there was no room behind, if you want to see xhaka play cb in a high line you are sick in the head
Whereas, Sokratis, Mustafi & an unfit Holding in a high line is unimpeachable sanity....
Easy to criticize but I promise you would find supporting Arsenal much easier if you try to be more positive at least some of the timewho the hell said that xhaka would be worse than all except the unfit holding tho
Easy to criticize but I promise you would find supporting Arsenal much easier if you try to be more positive at least some of the time