Martin Keown says Granit Xhaka is Arsenal’s ‘most improved’ player

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Former Arsenal defender, Martin Keown, believes Mikel Arteta needs to take responsibility for leaving Granit Xhaka ‘exposed’ at left-back last night.

The Gunners remain in their Europa League semi-final with Villarreal thanks to a late Nicolas Pepe penalty. However, they struggled throughout much of the tie and will be glad to get back to The Emirates still in the tie.

Mikel Arteta once again opted to go with Granit Xhaka at left-back in the abscence of Kieran Tierney. But rather than it being a major success, Keown believes Xhaka is being left in the lurch a bit, despite praising the Swiss star’s improvement.

“He’s pointing to Ceballos to get in front of him. It looks like the action of a player who is not comfortable in that position and the manager has put him there,” Keown said on BT Sport last night.

“So it’s about the decisions of the manager, it’s not Xhaka’s fault. I do believe he’s the most improved player we have. But to play him at left-back leaves him exposed for me.”

Former Arsenal midfielder, Freddie Ljungberg also agreed with Keown on the night. The Swede pointing out Xhaka is ‘too slow’ to do well in the position.

Xhaka will be hoping to get back to his usual central midfield role in the coming weeks. Indeed, with Dani Ceballos seeing red last night, Xhaka could well be back in there next week.

TBR View: Xhaka doing a job but Keown is right here

Xhaka needs to be back in the middle of the park, it’s as a simple as that really. He has done ok in parts but as Keown said, last night exposed him a bit.

It’s not Xhaka’s doing. He’s doing a job for the team and trying his best. But if Arsenal want to win, then Arteta needs to change this quickly.