Arsenal: Why should Granit Xhaka come back?

Unai Emery has stated that Granit Xhaka is nearing the mindset such that he can return to the Arsenal team. But from a purely footballing perspective, why should he be reinstated?

By the time Saturday rolls around and Arsenal play their first match following the international break, Granit Xhaka will have been absent from first-team action for three days short of a month. As captain or not, such an absence is curiously extended.

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However, upon the return of Premier League following the international break, this week, head coach Unai Emery was asked about the potential return of Xhaka after some time off. Emery was positive, suggesting that Xhaka is nearing being available for selection again:

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"“He is coming back better in his mind, his mindset is better to help us and to be closer to playing when we need him <…> My objective is going to be his comeback to help us and convince every supporter of his commitment with us and his performances will be better and they will be proud of him in the short or long future with us. That is my objective, and what I am working towards.”"

On a personal level, it is very encouraging that Xhaka is mentally ready to make his return to football. His vitriolic substitution against Crystal Palace was a vicious exit. After months of abuse from fans on social media, he snapped, and there were concerns regarding his mental wellbeing. From this perspective, Xhaka’s reinstation is certainly positive. But from a purely footballing standpoint, it is fair to question whether Xhaka should return at all.

While his progressive passing, experience and physicality are useful qualities for a modern-day central midfielder, and having him in the squad is obviously a benefit to Emery over the course of the season, it is foolish to think that the Arsenal first team would be benefitted by having Xhaka a part of the starting XI.

This season, Xhaka repeatedly proved that he is short of the required of the elite standard that the Gunners should be looking for. He was ill-disciplined, exploited time and time again defensively, his lack of athleticism a crucial shortcoming in his game, and even his apparent greatest strength, his distribution, was becoming a problem, his over-reliance on his left foot slowing down attacking moves to a painfully detrimental extent. Xhaka did not deserve to start because he was not good enough, not because he told the supporters to ‘f*ck off’.

So now that he is preparing to return, how have any of these basic, foundational and largely irreversible issues improved? The same footballing shortcomings that were present before a month on the sidelines still preside.

If Emery intends to use Xhaka as a depth piece, a rotational, Europa League starter, support for superior central midfielders, that is fine — it is not what he is paid for, mind, but it is not the end of the world. However, if Xhaka expects to waltz back into the starting XI, he should have a very different thing coming. He doesn’t deserve it, and, quite frankly, he never did.