Arsenal
Aston Villa
Chelsea
Crystal Palace
Everton
Fulham
Liverpool
Manchester City
Manchester United
Newcastle United
Nottingham Forest
Southampton
Tottenham Hotspur
West Ham United
Wolverhampton Wanderers
News
Ian Wright admits £32m Arsenal player hasn’t been the same since Granit Xhaka left
Ian Wright has suggested that Arsenal d𝓰efender Oleksandr Zinchenko doesn’t look like the same player sin꧙ce Granit Xhaka left the club.
the Wrighty’s House Podcast, the Arsenal l❀egend was rev𓃲iewing Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Chelsea.
It was far from the perfect performance from the Gunners who were bailed out by late goals from Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard.
The midfielder was the best player on the pitch for Arsenal while Trossard once again made his claim to be starting as 🌄he nears full fitness.
There were some issues with Arsenal’s initi🐈al set-up that Mikel Arteta will have to address before tomorrow’s Champions League clash with Sevilla.
Arsenal’s back four looked very re🐷miniscent of last season when the Gunners were one of the strongest defensive teams in the league.
However, Oleksandr Zinchenko had a tough game and Ian Wright believes that might have to do with the fact that Granit Xhaka was missing.
The Swiss international was sensational last year and was sold♔ in the summer to Bayer Leverkusen.
The German team are certainly benefitting from his arrival as they’re currently top of th𒆙e Bundesliga.
The left-back must wish he was still at the Emirates as his form hasn’t been the same since hiജs departure.
Wright thinks Zinchenko is missing Xhaka
Talking about the Ukrainian, : “And again [Oleksandr]ౠ Zinchenko without Xhaka and what Xhaka done for us, it’s 🐎not the same role.
“He doesn’t seem𒀰 to be able to do it without the way Xhaka was playing and giving him that license.”
On Saturday, Rice and Jorginho were tasked with playing in central midfield with ൲M꧋artin Odegaard starting ahead of them.
Neither player filled the Xhaka role on the left-hand side when he used to drop into left-back to allow Zinche♏nko to invert in midfield and Wright has noticed the problem.
Kai Hꦓavertz was signed as his replacement but wasn’t🍌 given the nod by Arteta at the weekend.
Although Chelsea played him as a centre-forwa𝓀rd which was arguably too attacking a role for him, the German is never going to drift into the left-back position to cover for him.
Arteta needs to find a solution to get the best out of Zinchenko otherwise Takehiro Tomiyasu – who replac𓆏ed him at half-time – might end up being a better option🧜.
