Arsenal: Captain Granit Xhaka success more than coincidence

Arsenal put forth their best match of the season against Fulham, and it also happened to be the maiden voyage of Captain Granit Xhaka. Coincidence? I think not.

Here we are again, another win in the book and another comprehensively positive effort by Granit Xhaka. I have to say, even the hatiest of haters are having trouble figuring out what to say poorly about their least-favorite Arsenal man.

He continues to deliver on exactly what we need out of him and, now, with Lucas Torreira doing the dirty work next to him, the unrealistic expectations many call for from Xhaka are passed off, allowing him to do his own thing.

And, while all that was happening, Xhaka has been handed the armband for the first time under Unai Emery, in his odd captain set-up. It remains to be seen where Xhaka fits in the totem pol of captain choices, as Cech, Ozil, Ramsey and Koscielny were all out, but he had the armband nonetheless and what became of it?

The best performance of this season. The main man, Granit Xhaka, with the armband, was as cool and composed as you could ever ask for out of a captain.

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Okay, first, let’s get this out of the way – he did surrender possession twice. Neither was particularly precarious, more so just annoying. The horror.

Anyway, now that that is out of the way, let’s talk about just how effective this all was. Because captain Xhaka didn’t even have his pick of the litter. Ozil, Aubameyang and Ramsey were all on the bench or out injured. In their stead, Mkhitaryan, Iwobi and Welbeck were given the nod. Not exactly the best of the best that Arsenal has to offer, and yet they couldn’t have looked more competent and deadly.

I know that Iwobi has been improving, and Mkhitaryan has his moments, and Welbeck is capable of surprises, but are we willing to believe that all of those things went right, along with Lucas Torreira having his best performance, along with the defense proving to be competent with just Mustafi and Holding, just out of coincidence?

Or is it more likely that the captain of the day had something to do with it? Is it more likely that a known, vocal leader, who controlled more possession than any other player, was a difference maker out there? As for me and my house, we’ll side with the latter.