Arsenal: All Granit Xhaka’s “problems” worse without him

Granit Xhaka has been the scapegoat of Arsenal fans for years, but I think I’ve seen enough to finally say that you all are conclusively wrong.

I have heard a lot of crappy arguments from Arsenal fans over the years regarding Granit Xhaka, but by far the worst is the belief that he single-handedly cost us a Champions League spot last year. Which transitioned into him being the one reason the club couldn’t move forward this year.

Utterly pathetic. And I’ve kept my mouth shut for the most part, not using the club’s failures to justify that this argument is categorically wrong.

But after letting the shimmering turd that was the Southampton result settle for two days, I’d just like to step in here and say that anyone who still believes that Granit Xhaka was the biggest problem at the club ought to kick their own arse.

There have been a lot of things going wrong with the club lately, and Xhaka can’t even count himself as one of them because he’s been securing a much deserved exit from a fanbase that has so grievously wronged him.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

• 3 standout players from 1-0 victory over Everton
• 3 positives & negatives from Goodison Park victory
• Arsenal vs PSV preview: Prediction, team news & lineups
• 3 talking points from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park
• Mikel Arteta provides Gabriel Martinelli injury update after Everton win

In his absence, the club has completely lacked leadership, their captain has been a nobody, there has been no control in the middle of the pitch, there have been so many individual mistakes leading to goals, so many switching-off moments and so, so much more.

All of these things were heaped on Xhaka as the primary offender. And all I ever did was sit here and chirp about how we would have a lot better midfield presence with him on the pitch.

“But the individual mistakes, the lack of defense, the lack of leadership, the failed captaincy, blah blah blah” says the typical hater.

Guess what? All those things are even worse now without Xhaka on the pitch. Much worse. It’s an epidemic of the club, not a leak sprouting from No. 34. And while he may have played his last for this ungrateful club, I hope that people can one day see that he was not the source of these problems. Maybe he didn’t do enough to fix them, but who has? This is a club falling apart at the seams, and all Xhaka did was slow the problems down a little bit.

Call it petty and vindictive if you want, but I’ll never stop driving home the point that you’ve all been wrong about Xhaka from the off.