Sky Sports pundit Charlie Nicholas believes that Arsenal captain Granit Xhaka will leave the club in January.
The Switzerland international whipped up a storm this week following his antics against Crystal Palace last weekend.
Xhaka cut a dejected figure as he walked off the pitch following his substitution against the Eagles, cupping his ear to the crowd and swearing at the fans before storming down the tunnel and throwing his shirt down.
Many Arsenal fans and neutral fans were critical of the midfielder’s actions, with Unai Emery electing to leave Xhaka out of Arsenal’s squad to face Liverpool in the Carabao Cup midweek, while he was also left out of the club’s Premier League tie with Wolves this weekend.
While Xhaka has since come out to explain his reaction and express his remorse and regret, former Gunners striker Nicholas doesn’t think the 27-year will remain at the Emirates for much longer.
Talking on Sky Sports (via Goal), Nicholas said:
You just can’t behave like that, it’s as simple as that. The fans pay their cash, they come in there – and they pay big money at Arsenal – and they’re wanting better.
They’re sick to death now, for the last four seasons or so they’ve seen average performances. Because of the lack of leaders that Arsenal have, it’s actually backfired on him. Because the players have picked the captain, so he has an influence in the dressing room.
This length of time that it’s taken him to get rid of his anger, if I was the manager I wouldn’t have played him, but I would have put him in the group today [against Wolves], to bring him back in.
You bring him in, you get him involved in it. And then if he still feels the same, if he’s still in a bad mood, in a huff or angry, which he is probably all of them, what’s going to happen and materialise in the next week or two is it’s going to be a falling out of love with the club, the Arsenal owners have got to make a decision because they know the fans are against him, and I think he’ll leave in January.
Read Arsenal Verdict
Xhaka’s situation is extremely disappointing, particularly for Arsenal, who don’t want this type of negative press coverage. It is easy to point fingers as a neutral, but it does seem that all parties from the fans to the player have let the club down.
As Arsenal captain, Xhaka should have risen above the fan abuse, even if it was ridiculous, vindictive and unjustified. There are proper channels and ways to battle that level of abuse, and reacting on the field is the wrong approach.
I’m not the greatest fan of Xhaka’s ability, personally, but it would be a shame if the reason Arsenal sold the midfielder was due to his inability to recover from a situation that really shouldn’t have happened.
