Granit Xhaka’s brutally honest verdict after Everton game is exactly why Sunderland fans love him

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Sunderland were unable to grab a winner against Everton on Monday night, but Granit Xhaka still walked away from the Stadium of Light with the full support of the Black Cats supporters.

It was Xhaka who levelled the scores for Sunderland immediately after half-time, with his first goal since joining the club this summer.

He’s already been touted as Sunderland’s signing of the season, if not the very best signing in the Premier League this summer, and it’s not hard to see why.

Xhaka’s goal against Everton was massive for the Mackems and it well and truly got the Sunderland fans drooling over their captain once again.

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Granit Xhaka is not happy with performance vs Everton

While some may have expected a newly-promoted team like Sunderland to be relatively happy with a point against a well-established Premier League side like Everton. Granit Xhaka, however, was not pleased with his team for dropping points.

After the game, he told Sky Sports: “To be honest, we lost the three points today in the first 20-25 minutes in my opinion. We were sloppy on the ball, made too many mistakes, easy mistakes.

“At this level, you get punished but the second half was very, very good. I’m feeling a lot of emotions. We created a lot of chances. With a bit more luck, we win this game, but in the end we take one point.”

One of the key facets of Sunderland’s impressive start this season has been teamwork and togetherness, with Xhaka being at the heart of that. But, he’s not the kind of captain to be overly positive to boost morale, he’s clearly taking responsibility and demanding more from his teammates.

In his post-match interview, he added: “Yesterday in training was not our best session, and we started [this game] like we finished our training yesterday. We had a conversation with each other that at this level we needed to show our standards day by day, that’s why I think the first 25 minutes was not good enough.

“I believe how you train you play. That’s a good philosophy. We had a new day today, and we knew we had to be ready from the beginning. We weren’t. After 20 seconds they had a great chance… On one side I’m a little bit disappointed, and on one side it’s a good point.”

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Sunderland fans rave about Granit Xhaka once more

It’s that drive for higher standards that will ultimately help Sunderland avoid relegation this season. And it’s also endearing Xhaka to the Sunderland faithful.

Reacting to the game tonight on Twitter/X, one Sunderland fan said: “Granit Xhaka is the greatest footballer the world has ever seen.”

Another wrote: “Xhaka SENSATIONAL again. What a footballer. What a captain. He’s like a fine wine.”

Others simply said, “Underrated baller,” shared love for “Our captain,” and also claimed Xhaka is the “Transfer of the season!”

Funnily enough one Sunderland fan also took a dig at local rivals Newcastle, posting: “Better than Tonali and Joelinton but no one’s ready for that conversation.”