GRANIT IS NOT XHAK IN SIDE

Emirates, 3pm

vGRANIT XHAKA has been spared the ordeal of facing another Emirates shooting gallery – because his head is still spinning from Arsenal fans’ abuse.

Despite training as usual with the Gunners’ first-team squad (above), Xhaka will miss today’s home game with Wolves to ride out the storm which engulfed him last weekend.

Manager Unai Emery confirmed his captain will be absent, and said: “It is not in my mind that he is playing tomorrow.”

But £350,000-a-week enigma Mesut Ozil, handed his first trot for more than a month in the EFL Cup at Liverpool, is in the matchday squad and could make only his second Premier League appearance of the season.

Xhaka, made captain after Emery’s dressingroom poll, was never likely to feature against Wolves after telling his own fans to “f**k off” and sarcastically conducting their jeers in the draw with Crystal Palace (above).

And by staying out of the firing line this weekend, Xhaka will not have to face his most voluble critics until the next home game with Southampton on November 23.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, runner-up to Xhaka in Emery’s bizarre player vox pop, will captain the Gunners this afternoon.

But even by Arsenal’s standards of selfflagellation, it has been a dispiriting week. After surrendering the lead three times at Anfield, the skipper is now being hidden in Emery’s cupboard under the stairs.

Xhaka’s laboured apology on Thursday night, when he revealed abuse on social media had driven him to “boiling point”, has merely extended the soap opera.

And Emery has not revealed whether Xhaka will remain in office as his captain when the furore has died down.

The Gunners boss said: “He is training normally but, like every human, he feels emotions. Xhaka’s issues last week need time to settle down for him and for us.

“We can respect the people on social media, but we have to separate