Arsenal vs West Ham: And that is why we have Granit Xhaka

Arsenal fans have been unsurprisingly nipping at Granit Xhaka’s heels, but the Swiss was a stalwart against West Ham, and this is why he’s here.

The first three points are in the book for the Unai Emery era and holy hell does it feel good. Arsenal are off the snide, and they did it in typical fashion – inconclusively at first, but deceptively conclusive in the scoreline.

From the off, you could see the big problem that we’ve been seeing throughout the young season – the defense is left exposed. Horribly exposed. Both thanks to the midfield and the fullbacks, that centerback pairing has their backs up against the wall more times than not.

But something changed when Lucas Torreira came on for Matteo Guendouzi. Normally, Torreira has been coming on for Granit Xhaka, hence the calls to just switch the two in the starting XI, but this time, it was reversed.

The effects were pretty obvious. With Torreira sitting deep, Xhaka was allowed to do what Guendouzi had been doing all game – roam.

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And, like Aaron Ramsey, when Xhaka roams, without a restriction on where he has to be or how much he has to defend, we see the best come out of him. Now granted, even when he was paired with Xhaka, other than the defensive liability, he wasn’t bad. He was playing sharp, incisive passes like we are used to him doing.

But once that cover came on behind him, he truly thrived and he reminded us (those of us that can see past our foggy anti-Xhaka glasses) why he is around in the first place.

Xhaka can break down opposing defensive lines with a single ball. So many times he was the pass that sprung an attack, where the ball that was played immediately after his was a key pass. THe best example was the slick ball he fed to Aubameyang from about thirty yards out. Aubameyang then passed it on to Alexandre Lacazette who had a decent rip at goal.

What Xhaka lacks in agility, he makes up for with damn near perfect passing. It feels like every pass he plays goes exactly where he wants it to, no matter the distance.

And that is why he is still starting, and why he should continue starting. No one else in the team can play those sharp balls like he can and, without them, this team will get into a bit of a log jam in the center of the pitch as they try to dribble through lines of defense rather than just knifing them with one quick pass.