Arsenal vs Newcastle: We did all that without Granit Xhaka?

Arsenal have a very specific directive for Granit Xhaka, and that’s to establish control. So how did we do it without Xhaka against Newcastle?

There was a good deal of concern going into the Newcastle match regarding the absence of Granit Xhaka, who fans are finally starting to realize plays a big part at Arsenal, a big part beyond his ability to spray a pass cross-field.

His ability to establish control and own the pitch make him truly valuable, as he is secure in possession unlike anyone else and even the wayward passes have been drastically reduced. He is a control tower, that’s what I always call him and that’s the best way to put it. You don’t take control from the control tower.

There were countless examples of matches where Xhaka’s absence let to a chaotic match, and thus it was not ridiculous to think that Newcastle may be a similar thing.

But it wasn’t. At no point was the match against Newcastle chaotic or nervy, barring the one time Rondon manhandled Sokratis, but that wasn’t something that you can trace back to some deep underlying problem, it was a one-off.

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This was the first match in recent memory where Xhaka was not missed. In his injury absence, Aaron Ramsey and Matteo Guendouzi controlled the midfield, and while neither is in the same league as Xhaka in terms of maintaining possession, they used their active natures to avoid any unnecessary drama (mostly).

Neither has a “chill” switch. They don’t dally on the ball or observe what’s going on around them, they just drive from deep and don’t waste any time doing so.

Which provided an alteration from Xhaka, who doesn’t drive so much as he sits with the ball and observes. It’s always been an effective way to push play forward, and it was a nice contrast to relying on what we usually had to rely on, which was oftentimes very wanton with their control, losing possession in the midfield and having to reset for defense.

Xhaka was the solution to that, and he has proven to be exactly that. But against Newcastle, the match was so well controlled that Xhaka wasn’t even needed. Ramsey and Guendouzi, while not perfect in possession, were good enough and strong enough to not let the match descend into chaos.

I wouldn’t bank on this being a usual thing, because not all matches are going to be like this one, but it was nice to see. Even for as much as I will always be team-Xhaka, I don’t like relying on any one player, and we were getting to the point where we needed him, so I’m hoping this can open up more possibilities where we don’t.