Ian Wright has told Premier League Productions that he ‘cannot understand’ why Granit Xhaka mentioned his sending-off incident after Arsenal’s win over Chelsea from the weekend.
Upon his return to the Arsenal side, Xhaka surprised many by scoring a brilliant free-kick to help the under-fire boss Mikel Arteta put a much-needed three points on the board for his side.
Xhaka, who was sent off during Arsenal’s defeat to Burnley, stated after the Chelsea encounter that there was ‘a lot of people speaking’ about that red card and how he just answers those critics by showing his ‘character’ on the field of play, as quoted by the Evening Standard.
Well, the comments from Arsenal’s £35 million signing [BBC Sport] haven’t sat well with Wright, who didn’t understand why he needed to bring the incident up because it was ‘totally his fault’.
“He’s talking about his sending-off, which was totally his fault, at the time,” said Wright. “He did let the team down.
“If we are going to go into that then it was a period of the game where Arsenal were slowly getting something out of that game.
“But I cannot understand why he is mentioning that. He should just let that go. What he did [against Chelsea] has helped the team and that’s what he should be doing.”
Whatever Xhaka does for the rest of this season, and whether he leaves the Emirates Stadium next month or in two years time, he will always be a marmite-like figure in North London.
At the start of his career in the Premier League, the Arsenal faithful liked the look of the combative midfielder, who liked to use his left-foot from distance.
But for a number of years now, his performances have stagnated and that infamous moment against Crystal Palace last season perhaps sums up his time at the club.
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