With the north London derby ahead this weekend for Arsenal, all eyes will be on how much commitment the Gunners players have against their local rivals.
Though they’ve won all of their Europa League games, in the domestic competition, Arsenal has consistently come up short in 2020/21.
So much so that they are marooned down in 14th place with only 10 goals scored in their 10 games.
Mikel Arteta clearly needs to find a winning formula, and the sooner the better, however, former player, Ian Wright, has noted that one player in particular has really disappointed him.
“I think Xhaka at the moment has kind of reverted to type, it’s very negative, this is why we’re getting this stat of 58 passes per shot. We’re passing [too much],” he said on the Kelly and Wrighty Show, cited by the Daily Mirror.
“You’ve got midfielders who are not willing to take the chance of putting it in there, and they want to get these stats where they’re passing it sideways and they’ve got 99% pass accuracy, passing it five yards to the side.
“If you’re not taking chances, you’re not going to create anything.
“I think one of the stats the other day was the most interaction between two Arsenal players was Xhaka back to Gabriel – it nearly made me burst into tears!”
Although as a pundit he’s paid for his opinion and often the more controversial the better, the striker always gave 100 per cent to the Gunners whenever he played.
If Arsenal do want to get back to the glory days of the early Arsene Wenger era, then everyone has to start pulling their weight.