Granit Xhaka: Micah Richards Is Right, English Football Has A Problem With Arsenal

Granit Xhaka claims he’s not surprised by the excessive response to Arsenal having a game postponed…

Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka claimed that the overreaction to our postponed north London derby fixture last weekend wasn’t a surprise to him as it speaks to a deeper issue, the Swiss told Sky Sports.

Over 20 games have been postponed in the Premier League this season due to Covid-related issues as well as decimated squads, none of those came at the request of Arsenal.

However, heading into the north London derby, we weren’t able to field the numbers required to fulfil a matchday squad as per the new Premier League rules.

Our request to postpone the game was accepted and all hell broke loose. Sky Sports pundits started campaigning, columnists were typing away and irrelevant Premier League clubs were issuing ‘strong’ statements.

For Xhaka, he echoed Micah Richards’ comments that there seems to be an issue with Arsenal within English football.

“It’s nothing new for me. Every time this football club does something, everyone has to say something,” the 29-year-old said.

“I love the comment from Micah Richards, what he said about it. He said every time Arsenal does something, everyone has to speak about it, but nobody speaks about what other clubs did.

“So thanks, Micah, for the comment. I love it.”

Fans have long felt this way, but it is interesting to see those sentiments echoed in the dressing room.

You don’t have to be that old to remember when opposing managers would openly claim their tactics to beat us was to “kick us”. It was open season on our players and it resulted in three career-ending injuries within five years with Abou Diaby, Eduardo and Aaron Ramsey reeling from horrific broken legs.

Now, we seem to be punished differently with referees becoming card-happy in our games. In our recent defeat to Manchester City, we received eight yellow cards from just 11 fouls. That’s not normal.

There’s only one way to respond to the powers that be and that’s to win games.