RocktheCasbah And for all your "if we signed a first XI midfielder today" chat (which I actually kinda agree with), the fact remains that Arteta is now in his 7th transfer window at the club and Xhaka has not been replaced. There must be a reason for that, no?
I mean, you agree with it because it's correct. Xhaka is our least valuable, most replaceable starting midfielder.
RocktheCasbah He can't see what is obvious to most of us, much as we love Tierney we've evolved beyond him.
I mean, to me, swap Tierney for Xhaka (and "we" for "I") and this is precisely how to look at it.
To be clear, I am not saying Xhaka's performing badly or that I currently hate him. I'm loving watching Sunshine Xhaka. But I don't fancy him around Arsenal once he's not first XI, which will be soon barring misfortune.
RocktheCasbah I find it amazing that there is still this sniffiness around someone who hasn't just been great this season, but was actually doing it for a large part of last season too.
Well if you take out being sniffy about Xhaka, it really is impossible to be sniffy about this incredible team.
This isn't how I watch us play, and it's now how you assess a team sport, but you could make a decent argument every other player in our first XI is currently outplaying Xhaka position for position, contributing more than him, maybe Nketiah would be the sole exception … no wonder Xhaka looks a changed man.
Arteta has signed a player in Zinchenko whose job description is to rove around behind Xhaka at 8, take over half Xhaka's defensive duty, and feed Xhaka the ball immaculately almost every chance he gets. The whole logic of Xhaka's migration forward, and Zinchenko's tucked in position is pretty much "this guy's now Granit's permanent butler, Jeeves to his Bertie Wooster, because we figured out Xhaka's balance of risk and output is far better as a gung ho 8 than a part time 6".
That sounds extremely sniffy no doubt, but imagine what this side could do with a really, really good player where Xhaka now tears about.
I get the allure of the redemption narrative—it exerts a strong pull—but it's just that Arteta figured it out, Xhaka can keep his temper and be a leader and a player in a transformed, successful Arsenal team.
