Arsenal: You better be ready for life without Granit Xhaka

Rumors linking Granit Xhaka to an Arsenal exit are ramping up, but every one of you needs to be ready for life without the Swiss anchor.

Granit Xhaka‘s Arsenal exit seemed inevitable following his spat with fans and subsequent time off. He was stripped of the captaincy and his response clearly indicated that he was less than pleased with how things turned out, but was willing to move on and try to fix this.

The thing is, he doesn’t really need to fix it. He did his part. He apologized. Fans never gave him that much. And even if they had, they went to new lows that no fan should ever stoop to and an exit still seemed the best course for both parties.

With links now ramping up, it’s time to think about what life will be like without Xhaka. Because whatever fans think, they aren’t ready for this. And neither is the team.

The difference between having an in-form Xhaka in the starting XI and not having him at all is stark, and it can be seen all across the past two seasons.

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Not even having the option of inserting Xhaka into the midfield removes a security blanket that I don’t think many people knew they were covered in. No matter how much we all love Matteo Guendouzi and Lucas Torreira, they just aren’t enough to compensate for Xhaka leaving.

Neither has the stability or the control or the presence that he does, and few players out there do. If the goal is to navigate around needing that, fine. But we don’t have the foundation laid for that approach yet either.

Selling him in January would be… dicey. The odds of finding a proper replacement are slim to none and we’d need something. Unless you’re all willing to let Guendouzi take the reins and figure things out as he goes. I’m not opposed to that, but it’s a risk, and a big one. He’s still got a lot of learning to do.

There’s another reason you may not be ready for Xhaka to go—you’re going to need to find someone else to blame.

Unfortunately, this is a fanbase who loves a scapegoat. Xhaka took that honor from Olivier Giroud, but in order for them to vent their frustrations properly and not have to actually consider where this anger is coming form, they are going to need another capable, underrated player to lash out at.

I’d wager that Calum Chambers gets the brunt of that, sadly enough.