Arsenal: Granit Xhaka embodies greater spirit

Granit Xhaka has praised Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for having the ‘balls’ to take the missed penalty in the closing stages of the North London Derby. His comments embody a greater team spirit in the Arsenal dressing room.

The 90th minute. Arsenal had just thrown away a one-goal lead, chasing their first road win against a top-six opponent. A draw was no bad result, but the manner of it was disheartening, to say the least. But then a lifeline. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang felled. Penalty. Sadly, that lifeline was not taken.

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Aubameyang would step up to convert the penalty he won. His effort was tame, low, without pace, to Hugo Lloris’ right, the Spurs goalkeeper easily palming the ball clear. To add insult to injury, Aubameyang would then miss the rebound, a terrific goal-saving block from Jan Vertonghen piling on the misery.

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It would be easy to blame Aubameyang for Arsenal’s inability to win the third and final North London Derby of the season. A win would have put them in the driver’s seat for a top-four finish and closed the gap to Spurs to just one point. Aubameyang squandered the opportunity.

But when asked about his teammate’s missed penalty, seemingly in an attempt to drive a rift between the two players, Granit Xhaka was bullish in his support of his top goalscorer. Speaking with the media after the match, the Swiss international said:

"“If you take a penalty in the derby you have big balls. Not all of the players would have taken this one. So we are happy he took the penalty. If he scores he scores, if he doesn’t score he doesn’t score. This is football <…> But we are a team, and we win and lose together. So he was unlucky today but he helps us a lot in games so it’s not something big.”"

Xhaka’s outright support of his teammate is reminiscent of Aaron Ramsey’s response to Alexandre Lacazette’s glaring miss in the same game, physically pulling the Frenchman up, encouraging him to keep persevering, despite the failure to convert a fairly simple chance.

And these displays of togetherness, a collective and cohesive encouragement of the team, the whole squad, a united dressing room, have been present throughout the whole season. Xhaka’s encouragement and praise of Aubameyang is not an isolated incident. Just look at the enthused passion of Matteo Guendouzi. The constant communication of Sokratis, bellowing instructions and cheering with Laurent Koscielny after every successful tackle. The friendship of Lacazette and Aubameyang.

This is a very happy, positive, helping group of individuals. They are a team. And the man who deserves the credit for this is Unai Emery. It is his management that has instilled such a positive feeling around the club. His own frantic behaviour on the sidelines is a key part of building the atmosphere in the Emirates, for example.

There is a greater spirit among the Arsenal players. And that is important. It may feel a little airy-fairy, ungrounded in any statistical or analytical evidence. But it does have an impact on the performance. This is a happy club, and that matters.