Xhaka Gives His All For Arsenal – Gary Neville

Granit Xhaka fails to learn from his mistakes and will find it hard to repair his relationship with Arsenal fans, according to Gary Neville.

Arsenal let a 2-0 lead slip for another game this season, drawing 2-2 with Crystal Palace yesterday the same way they did vs Watford earlier this season.

Xhaka was booed by fans when he reacted poorly to being substituted by throwing his armband and getting off the pitch slowly. He also cupped his ear to the crowd and swore at the supporters before he ripped his shirt and stormed down the tunnel.

Neville feels sorry for Xhaka on the incident but still doubts if he can be a good captain.

He, however, agreed that the Switzerland captain gives his all for Arsenal.

His words, “I struggle with Xhaka full stop, I’ll be honest with you,”

“I just think his discipline – ill-discipline – and his performances generally over a period of the last two or three years.

“I’ve never seen a player who seems to learn less from his experiences than Xhaka. He makes, it must be 400 mistimed challenges a match, he essentially gets booked in every single game I watch him. I don’t watch him every game, but every game I do watch, he gets booked.

“He doesn’t seem to set the tone for his team-mates with his performance levels, so what happened on Sunday doesn’t surprise me, because I think ill-discipline is ultimately – he’s been riddled with it, for the last few years.”

“He does give his all, he’s committed, there’s no doubt about that,”

“But he’s the least experienced, experienced player I have ever watched. He’s rash, I don’t know why he doesn’t pick up on this.

“On Sunday – I think it can happen, I’ve got no great problem with this idea of taking on your fans, a bit of tension. It’s never great, it’s not healthy but, in football, sometimes that can happen.

“I have a bigger problem watching him with his performance levels, the way in which he performs and doesn’t carry his team on the pitch.

“I think those little disputes can happen, I’ve seen them at Manchester United over the years where you can get those little bits of fire that can occur every so often but he’s having a poor time and ultimately I think it will be very difficult for him to continue wearing the armband.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if Unai Emery sorts it out with him, but I think it would be very difficult to patch it up quickly with the fans. He will have to apologise heavily to them.”