Arsenal: Granit Xhaka and the strength that keeps strengthening

Arsenal fans still can’t get behind Granit Xhaka, but here’s another dive into another statistic that should remind people of how special he is.

Well, here I am. Defending Granit Xhaka again. Only this time… well… nothing is different this time, I’ve just pinpointed another specific strength that the Swiss midfielder never gets credit for from ungrateful Arsenal fans.

I know I say that nothing that happens in four games is enough to write home about, because it’s too small of a sample size. I’ve said it, and I’m sure I’ll say it after five and six games, so on and so forth. But you can still start picking up signs.

Xhaka is showing that one of his primary strengths is his ability to retain possession. It may seem like a given, but as a deep-lying midfielder, the ability to retain the ball is rather important.

And it’s something that earned him a lot of criticism his first year at the club. While he was a complete loss in terms of retaining possession in his first year, there was certainly room for improvement. And he did improve.

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Xhaka lost the ball less in his second year than he did in his first year. It was one of the many improvements he made, including defensive work, creating chances, and numerous other categories.

But if we’re talking about the basics, retaining possession is rather vital to someone who is touted as a control tower of a midfielder.

This year, Xhaka has only been dispossessed one time. One. That’s in 296 minutes of play. Only Sokratis, Shkodran Mustafi, Nacho Monreal and Petr Cech have done better and that’s kind of a given. They’re not allowed to give up the ball.

But neither is Xhaka. Because if Xhaka does, he will be hounded ten ways to Friday. There’s no way around that. There hasn’t been any complaining about him being loose with the ball because it doesn’t happen anymore. Yet I doubt many people have noticed that. They’ve found new ways to criticize him that don’t make much sense (yargh, he’s slow, yargh).

What’s my point in bringing this up? because people that yap that he isn’t getting any better or, even more ridiculous, that he’s getting worse, need to know that, in fact, he is getting better. And he has been for quite some time.