Granit Xhaka perfect example of Arsenal ‘character’ for Mikel Arteta as manager hails midfielder’s attitude

Arteta on Xhaka: “He tries to help the team in the right way”
Arsenal FC via Getty Images
Tom Doyle28 February 2021

Mikel Arteta has held up Granit Xhaka as the perfect example of the “character” of his Arsenal team following the Gunners’ 3-1 win at Leicester City on Sunday.

David Luiz, Alexandre Lacazette and Nicolas Pepe netted as Arsenal came from behind to claim a deserved Premier League victory at the King Power Stadium.

Arteta rotated his team following a gruelling late Europa League win over Benfica on Thursday night, but Xhaka remained in the starting lineup at Leicester, playing the whole game and impressing with a dominant display.

Asked about Xhaka’s importance to the team, Arteta responded: “If you have to put an example on that pitch about character and about going for every single goal with that determination, then probably it's him.

“He's played more minutes than anybody else but he keeps going, even when he is so tired. He tries to help the team in the right way and the same like with David [Luiz].

“For someone like him, at his age, to play again quickly after the game we had to play against Benfica, it was tough.

“But they had the real attitude that they wanted to be involved, they wanted to play and that's how they approach every game.”

Additional reporting by PA.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in