Xhaka believes that the players had failed to carry out Mikel Arteta's instructions on the pitch but was not sure why they were not able to execute them.
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Experienced Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka did not mince his words while delivering his verdict on his teammates’ performance following the 2-0 loss to Newcastle United in Premier League. During the defeat at St James’ Park on Monday night, the Swiss midfielder was one of just two players aged over 24 to start for Arsenal. He said if someone is not ready for a game of this magnitude then they should stay at home when asked why they had failed to step up in such a pivotal match. However, former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher was not entirely impressed with Xhaka’s comments.
On Monday night, Ben White’s own goal and Bruno Guimaraes’ late strike helped the hosts defeat Arsenal 2-0 at St James’ Park. The defeat leaves Arsenal out of the top four positions. They now have 66 points from 37 games and are two points behind their North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur with only one match to go. Spurs’ superior goal difference means the Gunners have to win their final match against Everton on Sunday and hope that their rivals lose at already-relegated Norwich City in order to finish in the fourth spot.
“If someone isn’t ready for this game, stay at home, as simple as that. It doesn’t matter your age, you can be 30, 35, 10, 18 – if you’re not ready for that, stay on the bench, stay at home, don’t come here,” Xhaka told Sky Sports. “We need people to have the balls to come here and play because we knew this game is one of the most important for us. To perform like this is not acceptable. It’s very, very sad for us, very disappointing and I feel very sorry for the people who came here to support us. This is not the way we wanted to go. This is all I can say, to say sorry to them. I don’t have any other words.”
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Xhaka believes that the players had failed to carry out Mikel Arteta’s instructions on the pitch but was not sure why they were not able to execute them. “We didn’t do what the game plan was, not listening to the coach and doing our own things and these games happen,” he said. What happened was a disaster performance and like this you don’t deserve to play Champions League, don’t deserve to even play Europa League and it’s very hard to take it at the moment. I don’t know why we are not doing what the coach is asking of us.”
Former Liverpool and England centre-back Jamie Carragher was happy to see Granit Xhaka being “honest”. However, he believed that it was not just a few players who let the squad down, but that the entire group failed to perform at that level. “He’s come out really strong and we like players to be honest. He’s having a go at his own team-mates really and saying they weren’t ready,” Carragher told Monday Night Football.
“But I know from my own experience it’s easy to come out and be really strong with your words at a time like that, and maybe he’ll get a little bit of credit for it. But do it on the pitch. I think he’s putting it on some of the younger players – maybe he didn’t feel they were ready or maybe I’ve got the wrong gist of the interview. But it was almost like an experienced player saying, ‘some of these people weren’t ready, they weren’t up for the fight’. I love players being honest and straight, but he was part of that. It’s not like two or three players have let them down. That was everybody.”
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