Arsenal: Granit Xhaka shares key similarity with Aubameyang

Arsenal are blessed to have Granit Xhaka, but guess what? He isn’t perfect. Just like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang isn’t perfect either.

Hi. Here I am again, about to do my token move of defending Granit Xhaka against that mass of Arsenal supporters that take every opportunity to say that he doesn’t belong. Because that’s just my thing, y’know?

Against Valencia, Granit Xhaka wasn’t his best. And to be fair, he hasn’t been at his best for a couple weeks now, ever since returning from the injury lay off. He’s looked a bit off the pace. Naturally, the Brighton penalty is what has every anti-Xhaka-er’s tempers flared as the capstone of that streak of being less than perfect.

But that’s the thing. These people that seek to despise Xhaka seem to expect him to be perfect. Any wayward pass or errant attempt is like throwing oil on a candle (I’ve never actually done this, so I hope it means what I think).

Surprise! Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang goes through goalless streaks. But scoring goals… that’s why he’s here, isn’t it? So in those streaks that he isn’t scoring goals, he isn’t doing what he is here to do, right? Then why aren’t these Xhaka haters griping about Aubameyang not doing what he’s here to do when they’re so quick to do the same for Xhaka?

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Because Xhaka doesn’t have the luxury of being flashy or miraculous like Aubameyang does to wash away all doubts.

Xhaka is here to establish control, which he has done remarkably well all season. But just because he’s struggled to do that for the past couple of matches doesn’t mean he comprehensively isn’t doing what he’s here to do. It means he’s just come back from injury and has had trouble getting back into the swing of things.

Guess what? That happens to anyone else and it’s not a big deal, but the Xhaka-hate-squad is out in force following another match against Valencia where he wasn’t perfect. But he wasn’t a liability either, was he?

I’ll go ahead an answer that – no, he wasn’t. Again, a few wayward passes don’t make him any worse than the next guy. Everyone has a couple wayward passes. But Xhaka’s are just worse because they are…. Xhaka’s.

We won. Celebrate. Yippee. And I’m sure we’ll all be celebrating even more when Xhaka lays down an unappreciated masterclass in the finals too, but don’t let me get ahead of myself.