Arsenal Vs Swansea City: 5 things we learned – Just make it stop

1. Granit Xhaka is just not good enough

I will never know what Granit Xhaka was thinking for the first goal. As Alfie Mawson stepped into the midfield area with the ball, Sam Clucas made a fairly simple outside-to-in run from the left channel. He ran straight in front of Xhaka’s face.

Xhaka proceeds to simply stand there and let him run by. He doesn’t follow him; he doesn’t communicate to Koscielny; he doesn’t even check his run and take the foul. He literally does nothing. How? How can a professional footballer do nothing? I just do not understand it whatsoever.

And it wasn’t just for the goal. Xhaka was thoroughly awful for the whole match. He slowed the game down in possession, he attempted exactly zero tackles, executed just four interceptions and clearances combined, made zero blocks, and he was routinely run past by Swansea midfielders — there was one moment in the first half where he was bypassed high up the pitch, then turned, meandered around for a bit, and then slowly jogged back towards the goal, all the while, Mohamed Elneny busted a lung to recover his position, eventually making a vital interception that saved a certain goal — as they poured forward with unchecked counter-attack after counter-attack.

Next: Arsenal Vs Swansea City: Player ratings

Granit Xhaka is a terrible, terrible footballer. I have long been a defender of his. I believed that he had the traits that, if used correctly and developed, could lead him to be a positive contributor. And, to some extent, I still do believe that. But they are so limited, so fine, so dependent on the perfect circumstances around him, that he simply isn’t worth it. If Arsenal got £10 million tomorrow, on transfer deadline day, I’d take it.