Emery’s plea to Emirates: Get off Xhaka’s back!

UNAI EMERY has told Arsenal supporters who turned on captain Granit Xhaka that they will not influence his team selection. Home fans cheered when Xhaka was replaced by Joe Willock with 18 minutes to go and booed him back to his seat on the bench. ‘We need our supporters and we need them helping each player,’ said manager Emery. ‘It is our responsibility to transmit our commitment and Xhaka is doing this. ‘He played very well on Thursday (in Frankfurt) and last week at Watford he did well. Here, I changed him because he played for 90 minutes on Thursday and I wanted to bring fresh players on. ‘But Xhaka is a very important player for us. He has a big commitment here, he is improving. I am not asking people to support him but I assure you he is going to achieve his best things if the supporters help him. ‘We are professional, Xhaka is an experienced player, he knows sometimes we can receive criticism and we need to be mature and continue working. ‘For me he is a very important player and I am going to support him. I am going to decide when he plays and when he doesn’t but he is important for us because his commitment and behaviour are great and he is a good player.’ Aston Villa were leading 2-1 when Willock replaced Xhaka as part of a double substitution. Lucas Torreira also came on for Dani Ceballos. John McGinn fired the visitors ahead and Arsenal defender Ainsley Maitland-Niles was sent off four minutes before half-time for his second yellow card. Emery said he was considering taking Maitland-Niles off at half-time to protect against the possibility of a red card but the young defender did not make it to the interval. Nicolas Pepe levelled with a penalty and Wesley scored Villa’s second before Arsenal turned the game on its head in the closing minutes with late goals from Calum Chambers and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Emery revealed the penalty should have been taken by striker Aubameyang. ‘It was a big decision to let Pepe shoot,’ said the manager. ‘Really the responsibility is Aubameyang’s but I was happy to see him make this decision. It will give Pepe confidence to score.’