O’Hara claims Xhaka was made to look like Guti in Arsenal’s NLD win

Add as preferred source on Google

Jamie O’Hara has told talkSPORT that Tottenham Hotspur were so overrun in midfield during the North London derby that Granit Xhaka was made to look like Guti for Arsenal.

Mikel Arteta’s men emphatically snatched bragging rights in North London on Saturday. Goals from Thomas Partey, Gabriel Jesus and Xhaka ensured that Arsenal kept themselves top of the Premier League while also inflicting Spurs’ first defeat of the campaign upon them.

The result looked to be on the cards for some time. Tottenham’s only bright spell came between their equaliser and the half-time whistle. Otherwise, Arsenal were dominant.

Xhaka made to look like Guti

For many, the battle was largely won in the middle of the park. The visitors were obviously expecting to soak up pressure before trying to hit Arsenal on the counter. However, breaking out of their own half was much easier said than done.

And no performance summed up the progress Arsenal have made more than that from Xhaka. The Swiss was superb once again. In fact, O’Hara compared the Gunners star with one of the most underrated players from Real Madrid’s Galactico era.

“He’s got to be adaptable sometimes,” he told talkSPORT when discussing Conte. “I know he likes his 3-4-3, Conte. But when you’re playing against Arsenal and the way they play in midfield, we got overrun.

“I mean, we made Xhaka look like Guti. You’ve got to play 3-5-2 in that game.”

Wherever Arteta takes Arsenal, Xhaka’s comeback from the brink is one of the real success stories from his tenure.

Of course, Xhaka has always been a talented player. But it just seemed that he was destined to leave the Gunners as one of the most divisive characters in the club’s recent history.

And he probably would have done had he gone after Euro 2020. Calciomercato reported at the time that he was incredibly close to joining Roma.

Ultimately, he stayed put. And it is surely fair to say that he has never been better for Arsenal.