Arsenal: N’Golo Kante Making A Fool Out Of Granit Xhaka And Arsene Wenger

Arsene Wenger spurned the opportunity to sign N’Golo Kante in the summer, with Chelsea snapping him up. He is now making a fool out of the Arsenal manager.

Defensive midfield has been a position of great weakness for Arsenal for some time. Ever since the decline of Gilberto Silva late in his tenure in North London, Arsene Wenger has been unable to either sign or develop a genuine enforcer, someone capable of breaking up play and instigating attacks.

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Alex Song was a player who was thought as a possible solution to the anchoring issues. He was strong and powerful, an adept defender with intelligence and precision in his passing. However, his over-eagerness to push forward whenever the opportunity arose did make his team vulnerable to opposition counter-attacks.

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In more recent seasons, Mikel Arteta, Mathieu Flamini and Francis Coquelin have all marshalled the position with differing success. The best of the bunch has undoubtedly been the latter, who brings a bite to the tackle that Arsenal are often lacking without him in the side. However, Wenger decided to acquire Granit Xhaka in the summer for the best part of £34 million, seemingly to end the defensive midfield issues that he has been unable to overcome.

Xhaka has, as many have declared, not settled into English football as well as Wenger had hoped. He lacks the necessary mobility to cover ground quickly when the opposition are playing short, sharp passes and has a worrying tendency to dive in, which has seen him concede two penalties and receive two red cards, the latest of which was a particularly poor tackle.

Although Xhaka’s inconsistencies are not cause enough to vilify him or Wenger alone, when combined with the success that Chelsea’s latest defensive midfield recruit is having, it is difficult to defend Wenger’s transfer dealings. The man I am referring to is N’Golo Kante and it is undoubtedly frustrating to consider the formidable side that Arsenal could boast with the Frenchman at the Emirates.

Kante was magnificent in Chelsea’s 1-1 draw with Liverpool on Tuesday night, winning nine of his 16 attempted tackles. Throughout the season, Kante is averaging 3.5 tackles per Premier League games, making 78 in total, and ranks in the top six of total passes with over 1,300. They are truly incredible statistics and showcase the defensive excellence of the hounding and harassing central midfielder.

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This is not to say that Xhaka was a bad signing or will not develop into a top class player in the future. Rather, I merely pointing out the misjudgement of Wenger in the summer, choosing the Swiss international over Leicester City’s miracle worker.