Arsenal: If you don’t like Granit Xhaka, you’ll hate Adrien Rabiot

Granit Xhaka has supposedly secured his Arsenal exit, with Adrien Rabiot coming the other way. It’s not a like-for-like. And it’s shaky at best.

Transfer rumors have been circulating about Granit Xhaka‘s Arsenal future for awhile, but you can’t get much more set in stone than his agent coming out and saying that they’ve asked the club to sell to Hoffenheim. Other than that, it’s just the deal itself. And while I won’t speak too much about that now, I will say that Adrien Rabiot isn’t the worst replacement.

But he’s not the best either. And by that I mean that all the reasons you don’t like Granit Xhaka, you’ll like Adrien Rabiot even less. This is coming from a guy who really like Rabiot. It just isn’t a good swap.

No matter how you stack them up, Xhaka is the better player, and Xhaka has been playing against better opposition to boot. Now you could try and say that Rabiot is younger and could grow into the role, that’s fine. But if you want to look at Xhaka three years ago vs Rabiot now, you’d see much of the same—Xhaka is better.

Literally, across the board. I know you can’t base everything on numbers, but they tell the best story right now. Or worst, if you’re Arsenal and you’re swapping these two.

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Chances created, tackles won, interceptions, aerials won, clearances, long balls, through balls, dispossessed, poor touches, blocks—it’s all Xhaka. And again, he’s playing against Premier League opposition. Rabiot was building his statistical foundation in Ligue 1 as the sole powerhouse of that league.

That’s not good.

Not to mention the simple fact that Rabiot is a bit of a diva. He always has been. His family is too involved in his career, he has to have his way or they revolt. Granit Xhaka is as upstanding as they come. He is always ready to take responsibility. He always gives his all.

Rabiot has a sketchy past in that regard too. And sure, maybe coming to the Emirates will whip him into shape. That’s a cute hypothetical. It really isn’t, though.

If you didn’t like Granit Xhaka, you’ll like Adrien Rabiot even less. Plain and simple. Do you want to wait around and watch a lesser player acclimate when we’ve got the better player already at the club? Nope. Not a good trade off. Keep Xhaka. If you want to add Rabiot, great. But not as a Xhaka replacement.