Granit Xhaka has admitted he ‘made a mistake’ in giving away the penalty against Spurs but isn’t quite sure why people care so much about that and not all the good stuff he does.
I’m just guessing here, Granit, but maybe it’s because the ‘good stuff’ is what you’re paid for and the penalty was one of the most brainless things most of us have ever seen in a football match in our lives.
Perhaps?
“I know that I made a mistake in the penalty,” Xhaka told the press in Switzerland. “But nobody talks about the many opportunities we have made, only about the mistakes.”
He was then asked about the criticism he receives from pundits like Gary Neville, to which he replied, “It’s part of football, there are a lot of noses that talk a lot. I cannot influence anything and I do not want to. Its not my business. My job is to perform on the pitch.”
And therein lies part of the problem. Like Shkodran Mustafi, Granit Xhaka actually has many strong points to his game, but his one weakness – that of doing unbelievably stupid things at the worst possible time – is so big it tends to override everything else.
His brainless ‘tackle’ on a player from a team famed for falling over in a stiff breeze left Arsenal facing down the barrel of a two-goal deficit. What’s worse, he didn’t even make them have to dive for it.
That penalty was the fifth he’s given away, more than any other active Premier League player according to Swedish TV.
Xhaka for Arsenal:
Penalties conceded – 5
Total errors leading to a goal – 11
— Fuad Alakbarov (@DrAlakbarov) September 1, 2019
It was also the 11th error leading to a goal since he became an Arsenal idiot three years ago.
Bu a weird quirk, he’s also scored 11 goals for Arsenal across all competitions.