It’s Time for Arsenal to let Granit Xhaka go

DBasia.news – Arsenal successfully held Liverpool to a draw at Anfield, Friday (14/01) morning WIB, in the first leg of the League Cup semifinal. The Gunners played a goalless draw and that result could be a positive capital for the second leg at the Emirates Stadium.

Arsenal became the first team to make Liverpool unable to score at Anfield in all competitions this season. Although Liverpool are without their two stars up front, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah, Arsenal are also playing with 10 players.

Liverpool dominated the game by as much as 79% but was only able to get 1 shot on target. Arsenal’s defense of Gabriel, Ben White, Kieran Tierney and Cedric Soares with goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale performed well to limit Liverpool’s attack.

Arsenal have been down to 10 players since 24 minutes and in that situation, plus playing at Anfield, the clean sheets were great. That situation would not have happened if Granit Xhaka had not carelessly violated Diogo Jota.

Yes, Xhaka continued to receive a red card which added to his card acquisition at Arsenal. It was the fifth red card and 2 of them were obtained this season. In addition, no one has received a red card more than Xhaka since he made his debut in the 2016-17 season.

It’s Time for Arsenal to Sell Granit Xhaka

English football pundit, Jamie Carragher said that Xhaka’s red card should no longer be tolerated. Arsenal had to release Xhaka who was unable to be an example for young players.

“The problem with Xhaka is that we said before the game that every manager voted for him, he is a good character, a good coach, a good man, he is a good player, we have seen him with Switzerland and at times with Arsenal too”, said Carragher on Sky Sports.

“But he was volatile in that regard tonight. We can talk about how great Arsenal are, they are fantastic but more often than not, you play with 10 players at Anfield, you don’t just lose, you get knocked out of the competition.

“In such a situation Liverpool should be looking to win a game 2 or 3-0. It happened because Arsenal had 10 players and it happened too often.”

“We talked about how well Arsenal played against Manchester City, but it’s Xhaka again and it’s happening too often now.

“He’s not even a young lad that you think is fine, he will learn with experience, he’s one of your experienced players.

“That’s the only thing that keeps stopping Arsenal from making their next move now because I’ve been so impressed with Mikel Arteta and his youth team this season.

“The experienced players in the team, it was he who let the young players down, usually it’s the other way around.

“That is a big problem for Arsenal going forward because he will never change now. He played almost 250 games for Arsenal. Those are positions and players they have to move.”