Granit Xhaka has faced a lot of criticism this week after he gave away a penalty which helped Tottenham Hotspur take a 2-0 lead in the North London Derby.
Xhaka brought down Son inside the penalty box with a tactless challenge and then Harry Kane neatly slotted the ball into the back of the net thereby giving Arsenal a mountain to climb in the derby.
Thankfully though, the Gunners were able to dig deep and courtesy of goals from Lacezette and Aubameyang, they ensured Spurs did not go back home with all three points.
And while almost all of the fans and the experts have come out to bash Granit Xhaka and his awkward defending style, the midfielder himself chose to lay the onus on the attackers(weirdly enough).
He admitted to the fact that he made a mistake by giving away the penalty but then also went ahead to scrutinise his teammates for ruining good chances.
“Of course critics are always here, in the London derby I think we had a good game, I made a mistake with the penalty, yes,” Xhaka told Sky Sports(as reported by the Standard).
“But if you see the game, we can win this game. we have a lot of chances.
“But this is football, nobody speaks about the chances, nobody speaks about how many we miss. Always (it is) about the mistakes. this is part of football.”
This is not the first time Granit Xhaka has swung the game in the opponent’s favour with his bad judgement and surely this will not be the last.
And while we somewhat agree with the fact that Arsenal should have come out of this match with all three points but we also agree to the fact that the midfielder should have also thanked the Arsenal frontline for taking them from 2-0 down to levelling the score at 2-2.
Also, the timing of the penalty was very bad for Arsenal since Unai Emery was hoping his team would be able to go into half-time with just 1-0 on the board.
But Granit Xhaka messed it all up as he gave away a cheap penalty and had it not been for Lacazette’s goal right on the brink of half-time, then maybe Arsenal would have tasted their second defeat in a row.
