Some Arsenal fans are spitting feathers after comments Granit Xhaka made after the north London derby.
Xhaka gave away a penalty in the game, which led to Tottenham taking a two-goal lead, before Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang goals meant the points were shared.
Xhaka, 26, was criticised by Arsenal legends Paul Merson and Ian Wright, with the former saying, “He doesn’t score a goal, he doesn’t have assists, he gets booked, he makes rash challenges, he gives away cheap penalties, he doesn’t sit in front of the back four as a number six to break things up. If you asked me what has he got, I’d say he’s got a hard shot. I don’t want to be disrespectful but I’ve got to say I don’t know what he brings.”
Xhaka hit back at in post-match comments, saying, “Of course, critics are always there. In the London derby, I think we had a good game, I made a mistake with the penalty, yeah, but if you see the game we could have won.
“We had a lot of chances, but this is football, nobody speaks about the chances, how many we missed, always they speak about mistakes. That’s a part of football.”
That got the backs up of many Arsenal fans who agree with the legends.
Here are the best reactions on Twitter:
One fan said, “Xhaka has no respect for the fans, he doesn’t care. His words show that. Brings nothing to the team”.
Another said, “Xhaka is garbage… He joined our midfield in 2016 and we have not seen the Champions League places ever since”.
The interesting thing about these two tweets is that another former Gunner, Kevin Campbell, retweeted both of them. He’s seemingly of the same opinion as Merson and Wrighty.
https://twitter.com/P1AFC/status/1169373254932451333
Xhaka also said that it was missed chances from Arsenal rather than mistakes at the back, his conceded penalty included, that cost his side the north London derby. One fan was particularly unimpressed with this saying, “This guy is our captain btw”.
https://twitter.com/Manny_AF29/status/1169612964128874496
Another fan was more direct, saying “Shut up Xhaka you always give away silly fouls get out of my club”.
He’s got a point. In May, it was noted that no player had conceded as many penalties as Xhaka for the same club since he arrived in the Premier League, and he’s started this season out on the same foot.
Another fan pointed out that he had made the “most mistakes leading to a goal from a player since 2016”.
https://twitter.com/WeMoveAFC/status/1169325742259355650
Not winning yourself any favours with the fan base here Granit. How about iron out your mistakes because they are becoming common place.
— redwhitegooner (@RedWhite_Gooner) September 4, 2019
Stop making mistakes and then no one can say shit, do you talking on the pitch Mr Xhaka
— Jack Smith (@Jaackk21) September 4, 2019
Two more Arsenal fans summed it up when they said Xhaka has to iron out the mistakes from his game, with one saying, “Not winning yourself any favours with the fanbase here”.