Xhaka’s like a fire engine which turns up and finds the house has already burned down — he’s that late!

GRANiT XHAKA is so bad at tackling that Arsene Wenger once admitted he had told the £35million midfielder not to bother any more. ‘i would encourage him not to tackle, to stay on his feet,’ Wenger said. since signing for Arsenal in 2016, Xhaka has given away five penalties — more than any other player in the Premier League in that same period. He has conceded 149 fouls, received 27 yellow cards and two reds. What we witnessed against Tottenham was classic Xhaka. He gifted the visitors their spot-kick by sliding in on son Heungmin, right under referee Martin Atkinson’s nose. Did he really think that would end well? Then his constant fouling interrupted Arsenal’s flow. The hosts lost momentum because he kept breaking up play. This is what Xhaka does. He is like a fire engine that turns up and discovers the house has already burned down — he’s that late! He does more damage than good when it comes to tackling, so no wonder Wenger told him to stop trying. i suspect Xhaka may be on borrowed time in this team. He could soon find himself behind others in the pecking order. Matteo Guendouzi put in possibly the best performance i’ve seen from him in an Arsenal shirt. Lucas Torreira has to be a starter for me, and Dani Ceballos is looking good. Emery will have to look at the pros and cons and decide whether it is even worth persisting with Xhaka. Overall, this was a great game for the neutral. it was like basketball. You attack, we attack. But Emery has work to do. Arsenal looked lethal up front, but vulnerable at the back. Emery will want to balance that out.