Arsenal vs Valencia: Granit Xhaka needs to get his head above water

Arsenal have yet another “biggest match of the season” ahead of them, and it’s going to require Granit Xhaka to be a bit better than he’s been.

You know me, I’ll always be here to tell you that no matter what Granit Xhaka does, he will always have a place at Arsenal. I’ve seen too much positivity to see it all undone so easily with a few poor instances, even if the latest saw the Gunners removed from top four contention. At the end of the day, it was just the tip of the iceberg.

That said, I’m not blind to the problems. It wasn’t just the penalty that he gave up against Brighton, it was the early errant passes that, against a better team, might have bitten us squarely in the arse. And despite how good the season has been for Xhaka, the last couple weeks have been… spotty.

There is no room for anything spotty against Valencia, but we can’t do without Xhaka because of the strength that he provides in the all important midfield battle.

Which is just to say that a lot is dependent on Xhaka’s ability to get his head above water and into the match from the opening whistle.

Even I will admit that if Xhaka has a flaw, it’s early in the match when he seems to lack the mental acuity needed to establish his usual control. It’s like he isn’t attuned with the speed of the match until he feels it out, but he is 100% more prone to mistakes early in the match than he is later on.

For whatever reason, he seems to grow into the match and settle in. Yes, I understand that the penalty he surrendered was later in the match, but I also understand that the penalty was nothing more than a nick and completely unintentional. So let that be as best you can.

We still need Xhaka as long as the midfield is so clearly dependent on him. Otherwise we end up with a bunch of headless chickens diving into tackles, surrendering possession as soon as they get it back, and contributing to the chaos, not taking the steps to limit it. Xhaka corrects all of that.

The season is winding down and Xhaka could really go for a solid performance that sees him finish as strong as he has performed all season up until these last couple weeks. And Lord knows the team could use it too.