Arsenal: Granit Xhaka the bedrock that every team needs

Arsenal fans are finally starting to understand what Granit Xhaka brings to this club, because it’s something that every single club needs.

Everyone is now asking the question of ‘who can Arsenal build around going forward?’ Naturally, that’s a pretty important question, giving all of the moving parts there figures to be this summer. With contracts running out and a new boss coming in, the team could lose a lot of their individual identity in pursuit of improvement.

But one guy probably isn’t leaving, and that guy is Granit Xhaka, who still has multiple years left on his contract. Thankfully, I don’t hear as much groaning about hims staying around as I used to, because fans are starting to finally get it.

Granted, that’s a lot easier when he plays the mistake-free football that he’s been playing since, like, February, but still, the reward is in the reaction. He is starting to be understood.

I have used to many analogies to try to explain what Xhaka is to this team. It’s not a glory role, it’s not a high impact (on the surface) role, and it’s not a heavy statistical output role. It’s a foundation role. One that forms a sort of bedrock for the rest of the team without drawing too much praise for oneself.

This is made more difficult because a single mistake and your get noticed for all the wrong reasons. A single crack in the bedrock and you forget just how much you were relying on it in the first place, and criticize it’s imperfections.

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Xhaka makes the team tick. He touches the ball more than any other player on the team. And to anyone that says touches don’t matter – yes they do. Someone has to be the guy that controls the tempo, and I’d rather have a steady, strong figure like Xhaka doing it than forcing it to the feet of some of our less-sure players.

Xhaka led all non-defensive players in pass completion percentage, he led all non-defensive players in ball security. He was even second on the entire team in tackles won (defenders included) and led all non-defensive players in ball-winning plays.

These are the types of things he delivered on a consistent basis, after he truly settled. And these are the kinds of things we can ask of him going forward. He has a brilliant football mind that translated to seven assists, the best of his footballing career (called it), not to mention that his passing ability is going to get really friendly with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on the team.

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You can build around this guy so easily. What he brings to this club is like a metronome, and any musicians out there can attest to how much of a cheat code a metronome is when you’re trying to play a song (had to fit one more analogy in there).

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