Arsenal: Oh, so now you’re all worried about Granit Xhaka?

It’s been a hell of a year for Granit Xhaka. Here we are, nearing the end, and Arsenal fans are actually worried about his absence. About time.

There were moments there when I didn’t know if Arsenal fans would ever see the light with Granit Xhaka. They were so, so determined do dislike the Swiss midfielder for his primary offense: not being Patrick Vieira. Time and again I came to this very screen and started jabbering about how ungrateful they were.

They’d celebrate his absences and moan about his presence. But this year, things have turned around. We got our first glimpse of what life was truly like without Xhaka when we played at Old Trafford, and a raucous 2-2 match displayed a supreme lack of control that left the Gunners susceptible to even the most basic counterattack.

The cause? No Xhaka.

He didn’t miss much else, but he did succumb to a short injury absence later on and, in his absence, what did we discover? Much of the same.

A few crucial goals later, some truly stalwart performances, where he stood as our lighthouse in the middle of the pitch, dictating the flow of the match and, as mentioned pitching in that odd, thrilling goal like we saw against Manchester United. Because no one has any value without scoring goals, right?

Here we are, after a two week break, and we’re about to head into our final stretch of the season that, if managed properly, should see us securely into third place, with the easiest schedule of anyone else in the race for the top four, and wouldn’t you know it, Xhaka has sustained an injury on international duty after scoring a screamer of a goal, and now his presence in the upcoming Newcastle clash is in question.

And wouldn’t you know it, people are actually worried, and it just fills my heart with such joy to see. Because it means that, after nearly three long, arduous years, people are starting to get the picture – that this club is so much better with Xhaka than without. And it’s a hell of a lot easier to accept that than to launch into some crazy mathematical equations trying to figure out what else could be changing to cause such a drastic difference between when he is out there and when he isn’t.

Now that I’m done gloating, let’s hope that he gets back in time for the match. I didn’t wait two weeks for Premier League football only to have Xhaka be missing on the return.