Granit Xhaka endured a moment to forget during Arsenal’s 2-1 defeat to Wolves, as the midfielder strangely decided to shun a counter-attacking opportunity in favour of a lengthy back pass.
Gabriel Magalhaes picked up the ball after a Wolves clearance, being left in plenty of space to play a threatening ball forward after an understandably heavy touch.
Gabriel can be seen signalling something to Granit Xhaka by pointing his left arm to the floor, it’s unclear what exactly this meant, i.e. if the defender wanted the Swiss midfielder to take the ball away or not.
Instead of Gabriel playing a dangerous pass forward though, Xhaka took the ball out of the centre-back’s path and played a long back pass to Bernd Leno.
I’m being serious… at home, against a team that thrives on a deep, dense block, Granit Xhaka did this on numerous occasions. Arsenal had a chance to break, and send Aubameyang through, but Xhaka interceptd his own team mate, with a long pass to Leno. pic.twitter.com/p9q08ZpdgD
— ? ????????? ? (@FuTlurker) December 1, 2020
Pictures from Sky Sports.
Mikel Arteta’s side have really lacked creativity this season and it’s not a surprise when you look at moments like this.