Superb Granit Xhaka has been reborn under Mikel Arteta

Just 5 months ago, it seemed that Granit Xhaka’s Arsenal career was over. Now, he is a crucial player again, performing well under Mikel Arteta.

There aren’t many players in this world that split the opinion of supporters within a single fanbase as much as Swiss midfielder Granit Xhaka does at Arsenal. We all know he’s capable of being a great player, we saw that at Gladbach and we see that every time he pulls on a Switzerland kit, but his Arsenal career has been tampered by costly errors.

At one point, Granit Xhaka was so disliked by the Arsenal fanbase that he was booed off the pitch against Crystal Palace in October, despite performing rather well in the match. This led to an angry reaction from Xhaka, who was subsequently stripped of the captaincy and dropped from the squad.

That was supposed to be the end of his Arsenal career. He was on the verge of joining Hertha Berlin in the January transfer window, which would have been a massive step down for a player so talented. In the end though, the sacking of Unai Emery might have saved his career at Arsenal, and maybe even his career as a whole.

Mikel Arteta waltzed in, convinced Xhaka of his quality, and instilled him back into the squad in a big way. This is the impact the rookie Spanish manager has made on the Arsenal team – it’s become evident that he is a true motivator that everyone looks up to, despite his relatively young age.

Now, Granit Xhaka is thriving in Arsenal’s midfield, and in a somewhat new role as well since the New Year. Xhaka has a crucial job in protecting the left-hand side of the pitch when the Gunners are in possession.

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This allows him to be involved in the play, which obviously benefits his team due to his immense ability with the ball from deep positions, but it also allows the likes of Bukayo Saka at left-back and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang at left-wing to do a big chunk of their work in the final third. Having Xhaka as protection in behind gives them the license to do that.

The role is not an easy one to play, as it requires top-class positional discipline as well as the ability to feed the ball to Saka and Aubameyang vertically.

Despite this, Xhaka has shown that he has all the tools needed to play such a key role, and Arsenal are benefitting from having a talented natural leader on the pitch once again.