Arsenal: Can Granit Xhaka salvage north London career?

What does Sunday’s Granit Xhaka calamity mean for the Swiss international and does he have a future at the Emirates? We analyse the Arsenal midfielder’s prospects here.

Granit Xhaka divides opinion among Arsenal fans everywhere, but the one’s speaking in his favour are a decreasing minority in a sea of fans everywhere who have been repeatedly calling for the midfielder to be axed from the starting XI.

Find the latest episode of the Pain in the Arsenal Podcast here — The Granit Xhaka One

And perhaps those calls are justified, for in the three-and-a-bit seasons he has been in north London, he has put in more subpar performances than he has good ones.

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On top of that, seeing him made captain meant that fans were expecting more from a player they were already disappointed with. Add to that stats circulating everywhere on social media that show how many fouls he has conceded, penalties he’s given away and mistakes he’s made that have led to goals, and one this is clear: Xhaka is a liability.

So, when Emery and the dressing room unanimously elected the Swiss as captain, fans were left perplexed and angry. They already felt that Xhaka’s persistent inclusion in the first team was unjustified because of the quality of his performances. Now that he was the captain, it was presumed he would be an automatic starter regardless of his performances and could play without any consequences.

However, Sunday’s incident seems to be the last straw in the toxic relationship between Xhaka and the fans, so much so that he did not travel with the squad to Wednesday night’s match against Liverpool and was described as ‘devastated’ by Unai Emery. So, with his career at the club at least somewhat uncertain, can Xhaka salvage his standing among the Arsenal fan base?

Well, Hector Bellerin perhaps proves he can. A couple of seasons ago, almost every fan was calling for the Spaniard’s head due to his repeated bad performances He was also booed in a match against Crystal Palace. His career, like Xhaka’s, seemed in crisis. And yet, he is now one of the leading characters in the squad, with many viewing him as the ideal captain, and is very much a fan favourite.

But how was Bellerin able to win back the fans? Well, before everyone lost it with him, he was one of the best performers at the club, a home-grown academy graduate who knew the values of the club and shared and embraced the fan’s passion.

He was a fan favourite before his performances fell off a cliff. However, in Xhaka’s case, he has been maligned from the beginning. That initial relationship is absent. It is difficult to say that he can recover his standing with the fans if it was never there in the first place.

To conclude, then, even if someone opines that this incident has been blown out of proportion, the fact reamins that Xhaka is disliked by the fans and that he has only further alienated himself. It is not the end of his Arsenal career just yet. Of course, not. But this is a critical period and how he handles it will determine his future in north London.