Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has claimed that they were open to selling Granit Xhaka at one point. This was because the midfielder initially failed to impress Arteta.
Hence, the Gunners manager told the midfielder to improve with the team or move on to another club. Since that day, Granit Xhaka has been one of the team-sheet’s first names.
ARSENAL’S MANAGER VERY HAPPY WITH THE PROGRESS OF GRANIT XHAKA
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has said that he is very happy with the progress of midfielder Granit Xhaka. He is also now one of the first names on the team sheet. However, it was not always so easy for Xhaka with the Gunners. The midfielder has claimed that he was ready to join Roma before the appointment of Arteta. However, it was Arteta that stopped him from leaving the club. Now, Mikel Arteta has said that they were open to selling him at one point. However, the midfielder performed brilliantly to solve the midfield problems.
He further said,
“I spoke to him at the end of the season and said, ‘I need to unlock something in your brain because you’re so comfortable and confident playing in this area that you have forgot what is actually going to win us the game and the team now demands somebody here, so unless you unlock that I’m going to have to do something about it’. “He took it straight away. He’s a very intelligent player, he came to pre-season fitter than ever, slimmer than ever, and he knew that if we wanted to take the team to a different level we had to change his role. He knew that was coming.”
MIKEL ARTETA SHOULD BE PRAISED BY THE FANS FOR REVIVING THE CAREER OF THE SWISS MIDFIELDER
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta 100% deserves the praise for reviving the career of the Swiss midfielder. The fans also wanted Granit Xhaka sold in the first window of Arteta. However, Arteta has backed the ability of Xhaka every time. Granit Xhaka has also said that Mikel Arteta is one of the best coaches in his career. Hence, Granit Xhaka is also currently one of the captains at the club. He captains the team if club captain Martin Odegaard misses the match for some reason.
Mikel Arteta has also said that previous coaching systems forced Granit Xhaka to play a defensive role in the team. He further said,
“We believed he has those qualities, those qualities were there to be exploited and they were hiding.”
“The team needed those qualities very much. As I said, he is extremely intelligent, he has the physical capacity to constantly threat and occupy those spaces and recover his position quickly enough to have the balance we need.“
Arsenal are currently five points ahead of Manchester City at the top of the Premier League table. Hence, they will be on the top of the table irrespective of the results in the boxing day match. However, the Gunners will hope to win the game against West Ham. This will help them maintain their five-point lead at the top of the table.
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