Arsenal: Granit Xhaka Eyeing Tantalizing West Brom Fixture

Arsenal has a series of very appetizing fixtures coming up and Granit Xhaka has to be licking his lips, particularly for this West Brom match.

Following two consecutive high-intensity losses, Arsenal are eyeing up a series of fixtures that have wins written all over them. These are teams that will let the Gunners play the game they want to play while hoping for a slip up to strike back on the counter. It is everything that the previous two fixtures isn’t.

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This plays into the hands of so many people that need to right the ship. Across the board, the Gunners are ripe with guys who really just need to be given space to play their game and get back into the swing of things.

Alex Iwobi and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain are always in a situation where they need a bit of speace to re-calibrate themselves, but that’s not what this upcoming set of fixtures is for. Now, this upcoming set of fixtures is for two guys in particular.

The first, as I noted earlier today, is Mesut Ozil. West Brom (and many of the upcoming opponents on the fixture list) is not a team that controls possession and that should allow the German to have a ton of breathing space with which he can create like, 20 chances and convert half for assists.

Optimism.

But Granit Xhaka is also looking at a massive fixture. Again, don’t get the criticism of him and love that he stood up for himself and said he wasn’t going to change who he was as a player. That’s awesome.

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Still though, if you are going to make that stance, you have to accentuate it and that starts against West Brom.

For as much as this fixture benefits Ozil, it benefits Xhaka as well. The deep-lying midfielder loves to spray long balls all over the pitch and that is made exponentially easier when there isn’t much pressure on you. There will be space, glorious space, for our creative midfielders and given the frustrations we have seen lately, those may well be unleashed at home against a susceptible Baggies’ side.

Don’t underestimate this Gunner’s team. The pundits will continue to, but we know what that means. The more you count them out, the more trouble they will cause. Having Mesut Ozil and Granit Xhaka confident and firing will breed some exciting results.

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And besides. Chelsea will slip up. Everyone slips up eventually.