Arsenal: Next stop for Granit Xhaka is most important stop yet

Arsenal have a gem on their hands in Granit Xhaka, but the Xhaka bus is still on the road, and the next stop it makes is the most important.

Arsenal‘s midfield has become the focal point of this club, finally transforming into the spine it needs to be in order to function as a unit and facilitate a smooth transition between defense and attack.

That midfield pairing of Granit Xhaka and Lucas Torreira is so specific in their usage and that’s what makes them so special. But it’s Xhaka who has progressed further down the bus route in his development towards stardom.

Think about how far Xhaka has come since he first came here from the Bundesliga. He came here as a rash, impetuous, slow, panicky, liability. Now he is a composed, intelligent, control tower that is… still slow.

But it didn’t come all at once. First he had to deal with the rash decision making that led to numerous suspensions incurred by yellow and red cards. He did away with that in half a season.

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Then he had to get up to speed in the Premier League and not lose possession every time someone looked at him funny. That came after about eight months to a year. You can’t buy the ball off of him now (unless he sees a streaking teammate).

Somewhere in between those two, he finally learned to stop taking pot shots from 40 yards every time the a whisper of a “shoot” came from anywhere in the stands. Go figure he scores more goals now that he doesn’t do that as much.

After that came learning how to defend at its simplest. Not letting everyone sneak by him and actually focusing enough to get in their way. Nowadays, you just don’t see Xhaka slipping up on defense anymore. Even at left back, minus Zaha’s flop, he did good enough to not be a complete catastrophe.

The next stop for Xhaka is the most important one. The next stop is when we stop worrying about him. When we can stop thinking about him altogether (minus the positive things). It’s not that far away either. With each successive match I worry about him less and less.

Meaning that a few more reliable, consistent performances in a row now and I’ll go into every match knowing that I don’t need to worry about mistakes to defend, because they won’t be there. Which is also known as stardom.