Arsenal: It is time for Unai Emery to drop Granit Xhaka

It’s time for Unai Emery to drop Granit Xhaka after his error and foul-filled horror show versus Tottenham. How many more mistakes is too many for the Arsenal midfielder?

It’s time for Unai Emery to drop Granit Xhaka from the Arsenal starting XI. There, I said it and I’m not taking it back. Out of respect for my colleague and ardent Xhaka fan, Josh Sippie, I’ve tried very hard to take a nuanced view of the much-criticised midfielder.

Find the latest episode of the Pain in the Arsenal Podcast here — Oh my, Granit Xhaka

However, after Sunday, where Xhaka gave up his league-worst fifth penalty since arriving in north London, then spent the rest of the night fouling everything that wasn’t in a red jersey, there can no longer be any doubt. For all his talents as a passer, Xhaka’s mental mistakes and penchant for giving up cheap fouls should render him unfit for starting duty, and the captaincy as well.

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Football pundits and Arsenal fans the world over were left slack-jawed at the unmitigated stupidity Xhaka showed in giving away a penalty to Tottenham’s Son Heung-Min. It was the kind of foolish, rash action that would get a 15-year-old hauled off the pitch and ripped to shreds by his academy coach. Arsenal great Martin Keown compared Xhaka’s tackling to ‘a fire engine that turns up and discovers the house already burned down <…> he’s that late.’ Gary Neville called him ‘an experienced player, who never becomes experienced.’ Graeme Souness was even blunter in his verdict on Xhaka’s two-footed challenge when he opined, ”this is something you learn in your first week as a professional footballer, stay on your feet at all times, especially in the box, it’s an invitation for Son to go down <…> Xhaka is 26 years old, disgraceful.’

All of those criticisms are wholly accurate and no, it’s not enough for Xhaka to offer up a post-game apology on social media. It’s an admirable sentiment for Xhaka to say he ‘will never give up’, but he’s still missing the point. No one questions his tenacity. The question regarding his play is not whether or not he’ll give up, it’s ‘will he learn?’ And the answer, at this stage, is probably not. If this was Xhaka’s first or second time doing this as a fresh-faced academy product, it might be more understandable. However, it’s difficult to imagine Joe Willock doing anything that sublimely daft after three years in the first team. So, what’s Xhaka’s excuse? How is one of the team captains also one of the team’s most error-prone players?

Ostensibly, the captain is the guy who clears the locker room and reads players the riot act for making the mistakes Xhaka is famous for. As such, Emery is clearly not holding Xhaka to account either. For all the Spaniard’s tinkering, the one constant seems to be Xhaka. But why? Saying Xhaka had a good game, aside from giving up the penalty, is like saying your guard dog did a good job for barking really loudly at the mailman the morning after he slept through your house getting robbed.

The great poet Maya Angelou once wrote, ‘when people show you who they are, believe them the first time.’ We are well past the first time now. How many more match-killing mistakes does  Emery need to witness before realizing this is who Xhaka is? A modern-day version of Xabi Alonso is not going to suddenly emerge like a phoenix from the ashes of the old Xhaka. These constant mistakes are a feature, not a bug, of the Xhaka experience. After 149 fouls, 27 yellow cards and leading the EPL in penalties conceded in just 102 appearances, isn’t it obvious the only way to stop Xhaka from making mistakes that lose Arsenal games is to stop putting him on the pitch in the first place?

Last year, it made perfect sense to wedge Xhaka into the team every game, no matter what. That’s because the only available back up was the recently departed Mohamed Elneny. This year, the emergence of Matteo Guendouzi, Joe Willock and Dani Ceballos means there’s no good reason for Xhaka to be a permanent fixture in the first XI.

Every one of the aforementioned players is more athletic, less mistake-prone and better suited to play Emery’s high-energy style than Xhaka. Therefore, the sooner Emery recognizes this and drops Xhaka, the sooner Arsenal will stop leaving points on the table, just like they did on Sunday.