Arsenal vs Brighton and Hove Albion: Granit Xhaka has one job

Arsenal’s midfield has been contentious all year long, but Granit Xhaka isn’t helping matters. Against Brighton & Hove Albion, he has one job.

Arsene Wenger made it perfectly clear that he had no intention of signing a midfielder this past summer. There were no approaches made and no real rumors either. Arsenal would have to make due with what they had.

Which wasn’t the worst thing. Granit Xhaka and Aaron Ramsey had proven to be massively effective in the 3-4-3 last year. It was the depth that was questioned, as both Francis Coquelin and Mohamed Elneny didn’t appear to be at first-team quality.

There was always hope for Jack Wilshere, but hoping in him is a dangerous game.

Thus far into the season, it has been a mixed bag of results. It’s easy to say that Ramsey has been spectacular, holding down his end of the bargain more times than not and heavily influencing most matches.

But Granit Xhaka has been less convincing. There have been moments of sheer brilliance. Against Chelsea, for instance, he recovered from a rough start to have a huge impact on the match.

Then, against West Brom, a match that seemed to favor him in every single way, he flubbed. The Swiss midfielder looked completely outmatched.

I had pegged West Brom to be perfect for someone like Xhaka because they control the least possession in all of the Premier League. Which should have meant that Xhaka would have plenty of time to work his magic.

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That simply didn’t happen.

So, against the Seagulls, who rank a whole seven places above the Baggies in terms of possession, Xhaka has just one job – don’t panic. So much of what I see plaguing Xhaka, when he struggles, is his being rushed.

Against Chelsea hew as rushed early on, but as he settled down, things smoothed out and he became a big contributing factor. Against West Brom, that calming down didn’t happen until much later and it didn’t have much of an effect.

We have to see him exert composure before international break. If, for no other reason, only for his own sake. I don’t need to remind everyone that Jack Wilshere is sitting there, waiting to be back in the first team and a nice, two week international break would be the perfect opportunity to rest up and switch things up, placing him back into contention while Xhaka sits and thinks about his mistakes.

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I don’t want to see Xhaka dropped. He’s far too valuable when he is on point. But it’s the struggle of when he isn’t that makes me wonder if he needs to learn the hard way that you just can’t be sloppy at this level.

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