‘Maybe it wasn’t him’… Pundit suggests Arsenal were actually making £21m player look bad

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Granit Xhaka’s Arsenal legacy is tough to wrap your head around.

For years, the Swiss midfielder was scapegoat number one at the Emirates. Fans and pundits alike took any opportunity they could to pile in on the midfielder, and he became known as a liability.

However, during his last season at Arsenal, Xhaka changed the narrative.

He became one of Arsenal’s most important players, and his departure is being felt in Mikel Arteta’s squad to this day.

Interestingly, Xhaka has kicked on even further at Bayer Leverkusen this season, helping Xabi Alonso’s side reach the top of the league.

Speaking on ESPN, Janusz Michallik has been full of praise for Xhaka and his impact at Leverkusen, going as far as to claim that it may have been Arsenal who were making the midfielder look bad all these years rather than the other way around.

Arsenal made Xhaka look bad

The pundit shared his verdict on the £21m man.

“I want to take my hat off because Xhaka coming over. We saw him come over from Arsenal after so many years of underperforming or maybe the transition where we saw Xhaka as the scapegoat. Maybe it wasn’t him and it was just the process of rebuilding the team making Xhaka look bad, but he came good for Arsenal last season and if they could’ve kept him they would’ve kept him and by the way this Arsenal are missing that piece on the left side aren’t they? They could’ve used him there instead of some of the players they have,” Michallik said.

Difficult time

Michallik may be onto something here.

Xhaka was at Arsenal during a time when it was almost impossible for anyone to shine.

Those late Arsene Wenger years were a struggle, and the early post-Wenger era was even harder.

Let’s not forget, a manager as talented as Unai Emery was chewed up and spat out by Arsenal during this time, and it may well be that Xhaka was just in the wrong place at the wrong time for his talents to shine at the Emirates.