Arsenal: If you still don’t understand Granit Xhaka, you never will

Granit Xhaka continues to do elite things for Arsenal, and if you don’t understand his brilliance yet, you’re falling behind. There’s no helping you.

I think I wrote an article with this exact same title about a year ago, but let’s give it another spin here, just in case. Because if there is one thing that Arsenal fans need, it’s a better perspective on Granit Xhaka. Somehow. Still.

So let’s look at Burnley, shall we? Against Burnley, Granit Xhaka started in the midfield next to a frantic and unreliable Matteo Guendouzi. The entire game was pure chaos, but if there was ever a hope of establishing control and putting up a foundation to build off of, it was in the first half.

Things changed in the second half. In the second half, we had no hope in the midfield. These guys were completely overrun and outmatched. Guendouzi kept giving the ball away and Lucas Torreira could hardly even be found.

What changed? Granit Xhaka moved. When Xhaka was in the midfield, we were able to enjoy some relatively sustained attacking play. We were able to control the ball in Burnley half.

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That didn’t happen in the second half.

When Bukayo Saka got injured, Granit Xhaka had to shift to leftback. The benefit to this was that Xhaka was able to assist the defense in a big way. He made defending his top priority and in a second half that was played majority in the Gunner’s half, defending was crucial. Xhaka provided that help, he provided excellent service on those rare circumstances that he did get forward and all in all, he did what you’d want him to do.

But the big story here was the shift from first to second half. Now, for all the fools out there who think that Xhaka is the sole reason we haven’t been back to the Champions League, let’s go ahead and make a more sensible correlation—Arsenal lost all attacking traction and stability when Xhaka got moved out of the midfield.

It was the same last year. The difference in matches between when Xhaka was on the pitch and when he was hurt or suspended was immense. But asking people to see that is apparently too much. Maybe seeing it over 90 minutes was clear enough.

Then again, I know better. Only the few, the proud, the intelligent can see what makes Granit Xhaka so brilliant. But we’re always looking for more recruits, so do let me know if you’d like to join.