Granit Xhaka is playing his best football at Arsenal after possibly his darkest moment

Not for the first time in his Arsenal career, it has taken a moment of darkness for Granit Xhaka to see the light. Just when it seems that all is lost, and that his connection to the club has been burned to a crisp by a fire of his own making, Xhaka emerges from the ashes as a stronger and more dependable force than ever.

How peculiar that it requires these gruelling episodes for Xhaka to produce his best football. Just as he did upon his return following the fallout with his own supporters last season, the midfielder has responded to his ludicrous red card against Burnley in December by resurfacing as the unofficial leader of this Arsenal side. 

Truly, it is when the going gets tough that Xhaka really gets going. He is one of only two Arsenal players (along with Emile Smith Rowe) to have started every Premier League match since his suspension ended at the end of last year, and his performances since have been among his best in a red and white shirt.

“Since he has been back, he has been phenomenal,” said Arteta last month. It was no different against Leeds United on Sunday, when Xhaka ran the match from midfield and created the opening goal for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. 

After the game, Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa was asked to identify his side’s problem in the first half, when they conceded three unanswered goals. He pointed to their inability to control Xhaka and Dani Ceballos at the heart of the Arsenal midfield. Xhaka was dominant, shuffling the ball from one side to the other and allowing Ceballos and Martin Odegaard to dart around the final third.

It is never straightforward for Xhaka, a player who divides opinion like few others in the Premier League. From the outside he is often derided as a liability, and an occasional loose cannon. He will be the first to admit he does not help his own cause at times, and he can hardly claim to have been a saint on the pitch in the last 18 months.

But the fact remains that Xhaka has been trusted by every one of his managers at Arsenal, from Arsene Wenger to Unai Emery to Mikel Arteta. They have all seen his value, and so too have his team-mates: it should not be forgotten that when Xhaka took the captaincy in 2019, it was because he won a vote held by the squad to determine their leader.

For years he has been one of the first names on the Arsenal team sheet. Why, then, must everything always feel so turbulent? Since he was appointed captain, Xhaka has bounced through enough emotions to star in his own soap opera, or at the very least play the leading role in a glossy fly-on-the-wall documentary.

There has been his delight at taking the armband, his despair at being stripped of it, his subsequent desperation to leave the club, his joy at being reinstated under Arteta, the glory of winning the FA Cup, the misery of his disciplinary disaster against Burnley, and now the pride he must have in his recent performances. All that since the autumn of 2019. It has been exhausting to watch, let alone live through.

Xhaka has always been a player of strange contradictions. After all, this is a defensive midfielder who has rarely looked comfortable when asked to defend, a steely character who has shown himself to be hugely sensitive to outside influences and a natural leader who is prone to moments of inexplicable foolishness.

At the heart of it all, though, is a man who desperately wants to do things properly. The most basic reason why so many Arsenal supporters do not share the club’s view of Xhaka is because they cannot see the workrate, the attitude and the professionalism that he demonstrates every day.

“After the red card, with the history that he had, he was in a difficult place,” said Arteta last month. “We had to try to bring him back where we believe he can be and where he should be — which is being one of the leaders of the team.”

For most of Xhaka’s Arsenal career, he has been undermined by his own mistakes. He has all the qualities required to be a leading holding midfield player in Europe, but he has made too many errors (the sloppy passes, the penalties conceded) to ever be considered a world class operator.

In recent weeks, under Arteta’s guidance and in a team that is developing a genuine structure, Xhaka has thrived. Those mistakes have dried up. He has been defensively diligent and offensively expansive, and he has had the protection of his team-mates to prevent him from being exposed in midfield. 

One would like to think that Xhaka is sailing into calmer waters, away from the choppy waves that have defined his Arsenal career. The signs are good right now, although recent history suggests the next setback is never far away. If and when it does arrive, Xhaka has at least shown that he is capable of coming back stronger.