Arsenal: Granit Xhaka becoming Gunners third superstar

Arsenal has two easily recognizable super stars in Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil, but Granit Xhaka is quickly becoming their third illustrious international.

Arsenal hasn’t really been a team populated by superstars in quite some time. Brief glimpses of brilliance made a few of their recent ‘stars’ jump into the spotlight, but no one at that level of being internationally indispensable.

That changed when Mesut Ozil arrived. Arsenal was back in the market for superstars and they had their first. Alexis Sanchez followed the following season and, just like that, the Gunners had their two very own superstars.

But that number hasn’t been threatened with recent signings. At least not right away. Because Granit Xhaka is on pace to become a third.

There are obviously some pretty important criteria that make someone a superstar. He has to have something that no one else does or, if not, do it better than everyone else that does that particular thing or things.

He has to be internationally known. He has to be at the peak of his play (important, but not necessary). He should be able to walk into just about any team out there.

This is just to name a few of the criteria that I am basing my assessment on. And no, this assessment is not based solely off of the win over Leicester City.

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Xhaka is not the kind of player you find everywhere. He is a hub. A midfield passing sniper that only really has one contemporary – or had, rather – and that was Xabi Alonso. No one else comes equipped with what Xhaka does. That ability to spray the ball wherever he wants, at whatever distance, with pinpoint accuracy is a rarity.

And that gives him a huge leg up in the race to superstardom.

The one thing that looked like it might hold the Swiss tank back was his inability to produce consistent hard stats. Alonso – who was hovering around the lower tier of super-stardom – never racked up massive numbers, but he did have some pretty high assist numbers in his big times years.

Xhaka grabbed two assists in one opening day match and he did it doing things we have seen him do before. They just got converted this time. And now that he is showing much higher effectiveness on corners than Mesut Ozil or Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, you can expect him to perfect that as well, as the skill goes hand in hand with his long ball passing.

Meaning that a double-digit assist season isn’t that far away. Start pushing into the teens and you enter into that territory where you can make the leap to super-stardom. And it wouldn’t take much from there.

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Maybe a bit more consistency with his long shots or an improved sense of when to tackle would do the trick. He would already have mastered his precise skill. Cut out the slop and hone a few other pieces and he’s there. Which sounds like a lot, but give it another year and you’ll see he is not far away at all.

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