Arsenal: Biases being exposed with Granit Xhaka scapegoating

Arsenal supporters and pundits alike are harping away on Granit Xhaka, but the Swiss midfielder is the worst excuse for a scapegoat yet this year.

Scapegoating is an art form at Arsenal. You have to know who you can pick out to blame entire games and seasons on. Olivier Giroud was the unquestioned scapegoat for about two to three years, and he has since been replaced by Mesut Ozil.

I would know, I’m guilty of scapegoating myself. But to see now that Granit Xhaka is being ousted as “poor” just has my head-spinning. I vow to never scapegoat again, because I never want to look as foolish as these people pointing at Xhaka and saying he’s the weakness.

I can understand not being particularly keen on the skill set that Xhaka brings. That’s perfectly acceptable. Just like how I’m not particularly keen on the skill set that Ozil brings (more times than not). But tooust him as the crux of the problem? Now that is unacceptable.

You can only ask out of a guy as much as he has proven capable of giving. Makes sense, right? You can’t ask Per Mertesacker to start pumping home goals from 80 yards out. That’s foolish.

So what do people want to see out of Xhaka that they aren’t seeing? When we first got him, he was loose on the ball, surrendered possession too easily and he took too many shots. All faults that needed to be fixed.

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He fixed them all. Only Koscielny, Cech and Monreal lose the ball less than him. Nobody completes more passes than him. And no one, in the entirety of the footballing world, can manipulate long balls like he does. We saw it front and center against Swansea City, he was pumping balls into the box to be utilized by his team mates.

He completed 15 of 19 useful long balls, one of which found Sead Kolasinac, who in turn found Aaron Ramsey for a goal.

Yet here we all are, maligning him as poor. Is this how I sound when I berate Ozil for his play? Because if so I’m sorry. I can’t stand to see credit not given, but even worse than that is when credit should be given and instead, criticism is. And that is where Xhaka currently is.

Xhaka is showcasing all of his strengths more and more. He’s even tied with Aaron Ramsey for fifth on the team in winning the ball back, behind only Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal and Kolasinac. But please, keep telling me how he’s a liability.

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Not just that, but he leads the team in assists. Sure, gripe that he is on corner kicks as if that is a point of criticism. It’s unreal. I watched a few poor passes from Xhaka against Swansea, but to have people actually writing off his entire performance? For what? Get real, people.

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