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Though generations of players have come and gone, hundreds of millions of pounds have been spent, and three separate managers have been in charge, each and every Arsenal side of the past 15 years or so has side been castigated by supporters and onlookers for the same reason.
The notion that Arsenal are inherently feeble — weak in the tackle, in the air, and of mind in key moments — has been reinforced over such a long period of time that it has taken on the air of self-fulfilling prophecy at this stage. And to an extent it is true, defending set-pieces has been one weakness which has transcended the tenures of latter-day Arsene Wenger, Unai Emery and, initially at least, Mikel Arteta.
But the oft-repeated idea that the remedy is to sign a brute, a designated kicker of men to roam the pitch with mud on his face, screaming orders into his delicate team-mates precious little ears, has never been the truth.
What the Gunners have lacked since the mid-2000s, arguably, is smarts. The thing which has defined them in all those years since has not been physical weakness, but an inherent daftness — a propensity to allow, or even directly cause, chaos to reign in situations where it is entirely unnecessary.
Few players underscore that concept more than Granit Xhaka. Even at his best, which often sees him starting in the side for its biggest games and best results, the Swiss is only ever a moment away from carnage, as the awful raking challenge on Raphinha in December and moronic shirt-pull on Bernardo Silva on News Years’ Day prove.
That Xhaka still regularly starts for Arsenal is a symptom of the sickness which signing him caused — the summer Arsenal paid seventy-million pounds of actual, real-life money for him and Shkodran Mustafi…
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Source : metro
