Arsenal: What to do with Granit Xhaka and his erratic behaviour?

Granit Xhaka made some equally wonderful and woeful passes during Arsenal’s win over Swansea City on Saturday. What should be done with his erratic behaviour?

There was a moment midway through the second half of Arsenal’s 2-1 win over Swansea City when, in comfortable possession, Granit Xhaka misplaced a simple 10-yard pass to Alexis Sanchez. The ball sailed past the Chilean and raced towards the touchline. Thankfully, Nacho Monreal was on hand to scamper across and regain control.

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It was not all that problematic. There was no defender near and possession was never in danger. However, when Monreal then played the ball back to Xhaka’s feet, Xhaka attempted to play another simple, first-time pass back to Monreal. The pass, again, was misplaced. The ball flew two yards wide of Monreal and nearly out of play. It was Monreal’s hurried recovery that prevented the turnover of possession.

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Now, this was a tiny piece of play in a game that had far more significant and influential moments. It did not affect the result. It did not change how Arsenal played as a team. It did not worsen Xhaka’s pass completion rate, for example, because, totally unrelated to him, both passes were completed. But the two passes do fly in the face of the rest of his distribution throughout Saturday’s match.

That pass completion rate that I mentioned was as high as 89% at full-time. Xhaka made several outstanding long, raking passes from deep, picking out the forward runs of his teammates. He dictated the tempo of Arsenal’s attacking play wonderfully, especially in the second half, and was, for the most part, precise and accurate in his play.

He was also integrally involved in the two goals. He was the one who instigated the neat interplay between himself, Mesut Ozil and Alexandre Lacazette for the first goal, before providing the key pass for the second goal, switching the play with a lofted ball right to the chest of Sead Kolasinac, who had time and space to pick out Aaron Ramsey in the middle.

But his erraticism of distribution is something that will, and has, cost Xhaka, and subsequently Arsenal. He poorly gave the ball away for a key goal against Leicester City on the opening night; his loose touch was to blame for Everton’s opening goal last weekend.

It is essential for the deepest-lying midfielder to protect the ball and preserve possession. When they have the ball, the wing-backs are given the license to bomb forwards, the front three are in an anticipatory position to receive the ball, and other midfielders are also thinking about the impending attacking move. None are prepared for the loss of possession. That is why so many goals are conceded shortly after being dispossessed. Nobody is ready for that circumstance to arrive.

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Xhaka must begin to calm down his play. For much of Saturday’s game, he was excellent. But such is the importance of his position and the areas of the pitch that he plays in, one small mistake can be exploited. Erratic behaviour is unacceptable. If he continues to be so, then a replacement will need to be found.