Arsenal: Kante Would Be Superior To Xhaka Signing

Arsenal have signed Granit Xhaka. They have been reported to be interested in signing N’Golo Kante. Here, I explain why Kante would have been superior to the Swiss international.

Firstly, let me state that Arsenal are now not going to sign N’Golo Kante. Whatever the many reports say, and there have been many reports, Arsene Wenger is not going to commit over £50 million to a position that is not even the biggest weakness in the side. However, as it’s the Summer, it’s fun to speculate and debate what would and could be.

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Personally, I find Arsenal’s snub of Kante a great shame. Now, though, the signing of Kante is an unnecessary move, with the money used to prize him away from Leicester likely to be better spent in other areas of the squad, like center half for example. However, offer me a straight swap, Kante for Xhaka, and I will take that every day of the week.

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I write this speculative and rather fanatical piece simply because of an article that Josh Sippie wrote here at Pain in the Arsenal. In true optimistic style, Sippie stated that Arsenal are better off with Xhaka. While I do not doubt that Xhaka is a great player and could well be a great signing for Arsenal, he is not the addition that Kante would have been.

One particular part of the piece caught my eye, where Sippie discussed Wenger’s philosophies:

"“Arsene Wenger has moved away from having a defensive midfielder. I think we had best just accept that. When Francis Coquelin was unable to develop any offensive abilities, he was pushed away.”"

Wise words, you may have thought, but why should we accept that Wenger is tending to move away from a traditional defensive midfielder? Yes, it is looking that way, but that may not be the best decision for Arsenal football club, despite the years of experience and innate knowledge of the game that Wenger boasts.

As we repeatedly saw with Mikel Arteta (wow I’m glad he’s no longer playing at the club), a midfielder who is employed to shield the back four who has forward thinking ambitions does not work in Wenger’s system. Without a defensive minded player, Arsenal look utterly terrible, especially against the counter attack.

Having Xhaka as the primary anchor does not provide the necessary defensive cover in Arsenal’s system. With players like Santi Cazorla, Mesut Ozil and two very attacking full backs, the best holding player for Arsenal is someone who has the athletic ability to cover vast amounts of ground, recover the ball quickly, efficiently and often and is not liable to be caught further up the pitch at vital moments.

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While Xhaka is not the Aaron Ramsey type, as Sippie rightly states, he is still inclined to push forward when he so feels, certainly more so than I would like. Kante, on the other hand, can do all these things and do all these things very well. That is why he would have been superior signing to Xhaka. Unfortunately, I will never get to realize such dreams.