Granit Xhaka embraces Arsenal role: ‘I am not worried about the minutes, or the World Cup, or the future’
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Granit Xhaka sees no reason to fear his mounting burden of games ahead of the World Cup with Arsenal targeting the Premier League’s top spot during club football’s month long break.
With four Premier League fixtures to be played between now and the departure of Xhaka and many others to Qatar, Arsenal hold a four point lead at the top of the table. Sunday brings a trip to Southampton and the start of what is a relatively favorable run of top flight matches, with the obvious exception of their visit to Chelsea at the start of November.
Few expected Arsenal to be anywhere near the Premier League summit as the first third of the season approaches completion, keeping hold of top spot throughout the World Cup would offer an almighty fillip to Mikel Arteta’s side.
“It has to be [the aim],” said Xhaka after Thursday’s 1-0 win over PSV Eindhoven in the Europa League. “When you are there you have to be there as long as possible in this place. I think if we have the chance to stay there where we are at the moment and the World Cup comes, maybe it is a good break for everyone, maybe for us as well, to prepare something else for January.”
The 30 year old has been something of an iron man for Arsenal this season, starting every game bar last week’s win at Bodo/Glimt in the Europa League, a match where Arteta turned to him for the final 30 minutes of an underwhelming team display. Arsenal’s match winner this week, with the first goal he has scored with his right foot since joining the club, Xhaka seems unlikely to drop out of the side that will face Southampton on Sunday either.
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Reflecting on why he is happy to take on the minutes burden that Arteta placed on him, Xhaka said he had calculated that he is averaging 45 games per season during his career. The only time he has dropped below 40 games in a season for the Gunners was last year when he damaged his right knee in a north London derby win against Tottenham. When he is fit, the Swiss international invariably plays. He seems happy with that.
“I am not worried about this because the staff, the coach, the know how I am physically, how I look after myself. It is not the first time I am doing this [amount of] games in a row. I did this once the last couple of 13 years. So I am feeling very good. Of course, every time you win it makes it a little bit easier, but yeah I am not worried about the minutes, or the World Cup, or the future.
“How do I play so many games? It’s a secret! No, I am joking. Listen, I am 30 years old, I know my body better than before for sure. When you are young, you are different, you think different. When you are 30, you know your body, you know exactly what you need more of and what not. Of course you have your private people around helping you with everything, with the food, with the recovery and stuff like this. At the moment everything works well.”
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Asked whether he feared an on-field injury might derail his World Cup bid, as it has the likes of Diogo Jota and Reece James, Xhaka added: “I was never thinking like this, I will never think like this when I go on the pitch. This is football, it can happen in one second.
“I had the same against Spurs when I did my MCL. It was unlucky as well. You have to put your foot in when it is a 50/50 ball. And me, my personality, the people who know me, I will never back out of that.”
Xhaka might be able to put his feet up over the next two midweek games, thanks in no small part to his own efforts at the Emirates Stadium last night. A swing of his right boot was enough to break the stubborn resistance of PSV in the second half, propelling Arsenal into a four point lead at the top of Group A. Avoiding defeat in Eindhoven next week will be enough to guarantee them top spot and a bye into the Europa League round of 16. Crucially Arteta may also be able to rotate his squad more significantly with only one win required from Arsenal’s next two European games.
Second in the Eredivisie with star forward Cody Gakpo in free flowing form, PSV had been expected to offer a far sterner test of Arsenal’s qualities. Xhaka pronounced himself surprised at the approach the visitors had taken, which saw them cram men behind the ball in an attempt to frustrate the Gunners’ impressive forward line. It is perhaps a sign of the intimidation factor that now comes with a trip to north London, something Arsenal will have to get used to.
“Even here at home at the Emirates, you have teams that come and sit back and are waiting for one chance, for set-pieces and whatever,” said Xhaka. “I think we had to finish the game today much earlier. We had enough chances to score. But yeah, sometimes the luck is not on your side and in the end it doesn’t matter how much you win, the three points stays here in London and this is the most important.
“We have always been good at home, but maybe now we are much stronger, much more compact, we have much more solutions. Of course since Mikel came we have much more solutions, Plan B and C maybe as well. It depends on the opponent.”