The Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka has been warned by Arsene Wenger for his dismissal in yesterday’s Premier League match-up with Burnley.
The Swiss international picked up his second red card of the season after lunging with both feet yesterday, and was deservedly sent to the stands. It’s common knowledge that two-footed tackles are strictly straight red situations, so there can be no complaint with the official’s decision.
Arsene Wenger has now moved to try and criticise his actions, albeit also insisting on his regular stance that he ‘didn’t see’ the incident properly
‘Honestly, I have to look at it again,’ said Wenger.
‘The noises I get are that it was a red card. He has to control his game and not punish the team with a lack of control in his tackling.
‘We don’t encourage our midfielders to go down in tackles. We want them to stand up and not to make these type of fouls. If it’s a bad tackle, it’s a red card.’
The Frenchman can hardly pick on the temperament of the Swiss midfielder after his actions this weekend, getting himself sent off from the dug-out, before refusing to accept his orders from the official, and apparently pushing said official also.
Wenger could be in-line for an extended touchline ban, while Xhaka will see himself miss the next three matches for his straight red.
Regardless of the manager’s situation however, he simply has to find a way to stamp out Xhaka’s recklessness, as it most certainly will cost us a large number of points, as it so nearly did yesterday.
Does Granit have a vicious streak or is it simply recklessness? Do we have the squad available to leave him on the bench on his return?
Pat J
It is ironic, don’t you think? Wenger must feel like he has 10,000 spoons when all he needs is a knife.
Our own Koscielny, who we all love and admire and who is our star defender, actually received two red cards within only 8 matches in 2010
Koscielny had two reds in 8 matches and became World Class defender
My point is that Xhaka has time to mature and hopefully with a stern talking to by Wenger, coaches, players he may be able to mature faster. Let’s not be too harsh on him as fans. Let’s also hope that Xhaka does not get anymore reds lol
It’s not as if Wenger didn’t know about Xhaka’s Hall of Red card fame before he signed him… It’s in the kids blood.
But what’s Wengers excuse for getting sent off? And for then shoving the fourth official as he tried to stop Wenger from watching the game from the tunnel entrance? ??
I’m guessing that Wenger didn’t see his own reactions either lol ?
Personally I think that we will see an improvement in our performance whilst Wenger serves a touchline ban, wait and see.?
You dont just seat on the manager’s bench week in week out and being rubbed off. Some day, you have to react and Wenger did. We got the result afterwards. If Wenger was sitting confortably without reacting, we probably wouldn’t have gotten that deserved penalty that gave us the win.
The ref denied us a deserved penalty and awarded a penalty to burnley for a similar offence. He was about to ruin us and somebody need to talk and that person has to be wenger.
Xhaka is still learning and by the way, he is new here in EPL. One or two more reds will make him adapt but certainly not this season anymore.
I’m struggling here. When have we ever lost a point from a Xhaka sending off set alone a red card?
The guy is not even mid twenties. He long range passes like it’s not even an even issue. Are we really going to criticise someone that could potentially be the hub of the midfield for 8 years plus?
Sounds a bit pathetic to me considering he has already improved and will do so more in the future. 3 years ago certain people would have begged for this player.
Aye, and he’s on his first season with us! Apart from Sanchez, all of our players have struggled a bit on their first season (well not Mustafi!).
I kind of wish he would do challenges like that to tw*ts like Costa, though!
I would say Xhaka is reckless, he just doesn’t think at times. Just as one learns how to position their body when controlling or passing a ball, Xhaka needs to learn the same techniques for tackling. In today’s game, players just cannot go in for a tackle the way he did. He also needs to slow his thought process down, and think! The incident that annoys me the most was the pen against Bournemouth. We under huge pressure at the time, the player was heading OUT of the penalty box, towards the corner flag, and yet Xhaka still decided to push him…madness!
Fingers crossed, his four game ban will hopefully go some way towards changing his thought process for the good. I am glad Wenger signed a more physically imposing and aggressive player like Xhaka, but as Keown said on MOTD2, “it’s about getting the balance right”. Vieira was sent off a ridiculous amount of times, but look how good he became, and how important he was. That gives me hope, in regards to Xhaka.