Arsenal Boss Defends Granit Xhaka Even After His Costly Error In NLD

Unai Emery had to jump to Granit Xhaka’s defence after the midfielder picked up heavy criticism because of an error against Tottenham Hotspur.

Spurs were leading 0-1 through Christian Eriksen’s goal in the first half when Xhaka pointlessly lunged into Heung-Min Son in his own box and gave away a cheap penalty.

Harry Kane, as usual, sent Bernd Leno the wrong way and doubled Tottenham’s lead before the half time whistle. Arsenal had to fight their way back into the game and ended the Emirates fixture 2-2.

Both sides felt like they dropped two points on the night but everyone’s was left questioning Xhaka’s decision. It is not the first time, the Swiss international has been caught making such poor defensive judgements on the pitch.

Emery had different thoughts on the player as he said, “In 90 minutes, I’m very proud of his work. Some mistakes we can have, I want to use them to progress, to learn and improve. There are a lot more positive things individually and collectively, and also with Xhaka for me.

“The penalty incident is a disappointing action but he played very well and worked very well. If we win that match, maybe we are speaking about that mistake less, but really there were two mistakes in the first half and they scored from both of them.

“In the second half, I think we spoke in the dressing room about that, and we learned and we did well in the second half.

“We continued to get the ball, we continued to take a lot of corners, taking a lot of shots, but we didn’t get the positions to score the goal. I think we deserved a third goal.”