Gary Neville and Jamie Redknapp have both slammed Arsenal’s Granit Xhaka, after he gave away a cheap foul towards the end of the North London derby.
Speaking to Sky Sports, during their live Super Sunday coverage, Neville and Redknapp were commentating when Xhaka went careering into Son deep into Tottenham’s half.
Son had nowhere to go, with Arsenal putting some pressure on in the final stages, but Xhaka decided to challenge him from behind and give away a foul, rather than holding off.
It allowed Spurs to win a free-kick, which is exactly what they wanted in the situation.
And both Neville and Redknapp were furious with the Arsenal midfielder.
“It’s just madness that,” Neville began. “The last thing you need if you’re Arsenal is the game stopping.
“Son is going nowhere and has a problem, you can’t counter from there and he just goes and stops the game for another 30 seconds.”
And Redknapp added: “I don’t get him. How many times does he do that? I think he thinks he’s fooling the fans, by saying look at me ‘I’m having a go, I’m making a tackle and getting booked again.’ He’s not helping his team.”
Xhaka has been a key player for Arsenal under numerous different managers now, but it is fair to say that he does have his critics.
The Swiss international does pick up too many bookings, and his indiscipline has cost Arsenal on multiple occasions.
Even yesterday Xhaka hardly covered himself in glory when Arsenal conceded their second goal of the game.
The £35 million man (Daily Mail) vacated his space to try and push forward, and opened up a counter attack, which Harry Kane scored from.
Arsenal’s 2-0 defeat to Spurs has left them sitting in 16th place in the Premier League table, which represents a terrible start to the season.
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