Arsenal: Okay I’ll say it—you have to sit Granit Xhaka

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been saying that you can’t bench Granit Xhaka. Arsenal need him. Well, now they can bench him…. temporarily.

I never thought this day would come. So to avoid the emotional upheaval I expect it will bring, I’m adding a caveat to my new belief that Unai Emery needs to sit Granit Xhaka. The caveat being that it’s only a temporary measure. Because right now, Arsenal need to change things up. Badly.

I get that it’s only one loss. But it’s the kind of loss that we suffered far too often last year and the kind of loss we were supposed to be well past suffering this year. Yet we still lost it, and Granit Xhaka can’t hide from being a big player in the cause.

Here’s the thing, I still believe that Xhaka has done far more good than bad for the team. By a long shot. And I still believe that, as captain, he deserves to be starting. But I also believe that given the state the team is in, we really can’t be glued to anyone.

Whoever is underperforming, whoever isn’t cutting it, should make way for someone that is. Otherwise we can’t improve as a team. We can’t figure out what’s truly wrong.

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Making Granit Xhaka, or anyone, irreplaceable is a mistake for a team that keeps tripping over themselves. No one can be irreplaceable so long as we can’t seem to improve. We have to keep trying new combinations.

That midfield is a big time problem. After seeing Matteo Guendouzi put in another convincing performance, I can’t help but think that maybe he should be our chief ball carrier. He took that role anyway, with Xhaka taking more of a peripheral role. So embrace that and try building around Guendouzi instead of building around Xhaka. What’s the worst that can happen?

And maybe that means Xhaka can get back into the starting XI, you don’t rule anything out. The man is talented, but he’s in a poor run of form and it’s start to get out of hand. I admire Emery’s willingness to stick with his captain, but sometimes you have to try a different approach and sit a guy down for a few matches.

At least until you discover that you really do need him, at which point you just hope that he’s ready to snap back into form.