Granit Xhaka: Pundit calls midfielder's Arsenal future into question

The Arsenal captain was caught swearing at the Emirates Stadium crowd after being booed by the home fans at the weekend.

Sky Sports pundit Charlie Nicholas has lashed out at Arsenal's Swiss midfielder Granit Xhaka after his actions against the home fans in the weekend's 2-2 draw against Crystal Palace. He made a series of comments, where he went on to criticize Granit Xhaka on Sky Sports.

Views on Xhaka's audicious behaviour

"The sympathy is not with the reaction, the sympathy is with him being nominated captain by his fellow teammates."

“The manager let the players take the responsibility and it's all been evident that Arsenal have struggled to find a natural leader within the group. He is obviously popular within the dressing room.”

On Xhaka's  recent criticism. The Swiss International has been criticised with his performance for quite sometime now, but the Sky Sports Pundit feels he should've  dealt with it in a mature way "I would imagine it's a horrible feeling being in the position he's in right now, but that anger must be controlled. To be a footballer of any significance, especially at the higher level, if you don't have a thick skin to take some criticism, then you are not a footballer,” said Nicholas.

"You cannot live at the top end because you may get a lot of compliments, but you don't think the likes of Messi and Ronaldo ever get criticized? Everybody does at some point.”

"He's representing Arsenal as a captain and it is unacceptable to think you're as big as anything at the club. His behaviour was atrocious and I don't see him having a future at the club,” explained the Englishman.

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"I think the bosses at Arsenal, and not just Unai Emery, are probably looking at this and thinking what is Arsenal meant to be? It's got a great history, it's got some fabulous players but if it doesn't have the crowd it doesn't have a soul, it doesn't have a heartbeat.”

"The crowd will always be the element of the football club and they are bigger and better than anyone else who's involved in it. So, he'll have to take his medicine. I'll be surprised if he comes back in any capacity to play for Arsenal again."

David Luiz the ideal choice as a captain,

Nicholas feels Granit Xhaka should be stripped off the captaincy and thinks David Luiz is the most suitable candidate to be the next Arsenal captain.

"The captaincy issue and the lack of leaders has been the problem for the best part of five or six years. Arsenal fans are getting frustrated again because they are seeing the same sort of a team with problems defensively.”

"They are trying to introduce some of the younger players, but it's hard to introduce them, especially into the defensive setup because they've got real problems at the back. They also have a real problem in identifying who is a natural leader.”

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"On Soccer Saturday (Sky Sports weekly show) at the weekend we had a nice interview with David Luiz and he came across as a good talker, who has a real understanding of the game.”

"Yes, he's not a physical guy or someone who's going to scream at people because the game has changed. The players now don't like the criticism that we used to probably accept as players in the past.”

"As it stands right now it could be anybody, but I'd rather they just said it's going to be David Luiz. We've brought him in, he's won the title and he's got more experience than most. You just put him in-charge of it and then the manager takes responsibility for that, and off you go. It's a start.”

"You have to start building again and Arsenal don't seem to know where to begin to start building this back up again. I've been critical of Xhaka as a footballer, but I do feel for him”

"However, to behave like that just means that you are probably already looking for an excuse to say, "Okay, I can go now in January."

"However, the club will control this and I honestly don't know who will take over. We don't have a natural captain, but right now, I would have to say David Luiz is probably the number.” he concluded.