Arsenal: 3 things you didn’t notice Granit Xhaka doing vs Newcastle

Granit Xhaka was far from Arsenal’s best player against Newcastle, but here are three clutch things he did that you probably didn’t notice.

You know the drill by now. While everyone is gushing about all the dominant performances after a big win (myself included), I’m compiling a list of all the things Granit Xhaka did that you didn’t notice. Normally, that accounts for one big point, this time, Xhaka was so under-the-radar important to Arsenal that I had to expand it to three.

Ever since Mikel Arteta had his “you should stay” conversation with Xhaka, it’s been like the booing off, and the stripping of the captaincy never happened. He’s been back at his best, he’s been looking like he looked for the majority of last year, and his influence has been monumental.

That said, again, Newcastle wasn’t his best match. He got an early yellow card in the 8th minute on a foolish, unnecessary pullback foul that left the announcers commenting about how the threat of a red card was now far too real.

I had to agree. But lo and behold, Xhaka made it 90 minutes, and his influence, while not front and center, laid a solid foundation for so much else.

So let’s talk about the three things he did that you may not have noticed. We start with No. 3.

3. Covered the most ground

I have always enjoyed the stat of ground covered, because it shows who was putting in the effort. It shows who was getting around, getting involved, and making a difference.

Granit Xhaka covered the most ground against Newcastle, at 10.7km. I know this because people were so busy praising Mesut Ozil‘s 10.3km covered, mentioning only in passing that Xhaka had actually covered the most ground.

For a static player, who is criticized for his lack of athleticism, that’s a lot of ground. You know what he was doing? He was defending. He was attacking. He was… well, he was covering ground. And one of the main swaths of ground he had to cover will be talked about at No. 1, but for now, on to No. 2.