Owen Hargreaves told Premier League Productions during their live coverage of Arsenal’s draw at Burnley on Saturday that Bernd Leno made a ‘terrible’ mistake prior to Granit Xhaka’s error.
Hundreds upon hundreds of goals can be scored from now until the end of the season, but none will match the calamitous levels that Xhaka hit for Arsenal yesterday.
It was a mistake that cost Arsenal all three points, and in truth, summed up the dismal season they have had in the Premier League.
And whilst former England midfielder Hargreaves was critical of Xhaka’s error, he felt that Leno made a mistake in passing his teammate the ball in the first place.
“Xhaka runs to him so urgently, I think Leno thinks ‘Oh, that’s a good ball. I put it into him’,” said Hargreaves.
“First of all, you should never receive the ball in there. You see the centre-backs split then Xhaka runs into that spot.
“It’s a terrible ball from Leno but Xhaka shouldn’t be in there, and because it goes onto his right foot, he’s not confident enough to play it to the other side to David Luiz like a right-footed player should have.
“Terrible mistake but Mikel (Arteta) wants them to play out.”
Arsenal have no choice but to brush this off, dust themselves down and prepare for the pressure-cooker of this forthcoming week.
From their Europa League first-leg showdown on Thursday to a certain North London derby days later, it’s sure to test the nerve of many across those parts of the capital.
None other than Xhaka who, more than likely, will feature heavily in those matches even though Arsenal fans would want him dropped for yesterday’s error.
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