In 2016, Arsenal fans were delighted when we signed a young, tough midfielder from Bundesliga side Borussia Moenchengladbach. He joined for a fee of around £35 million, and was tipped to become a worthy successor to the great Arsenal midfielders of old. He captained Gladbach aged 22, and seemed to be a very mature young player.

Yet, all has not gone well for the Swiss international. Since joining Arsenal, his game has been riddled with mistakes, and he has been heavily criticised for a lack of work-rate and, ironically, maturity. Very recently, he was stripped of the Arsenal captaincy after swearing at Gunners supporters who booed him as he was substituted. So, where did it go wrong for Xhaka?

I believe that the problem stems from the role he was given to play within the team. He was expected to be a box to box defensive midfielder, endlessly nipping at the heels of the opposition to win the ball back. This is not his game. It is clear that he does have quality; his distribution is mostly excellent, and fans will remember with some pleasure his long-range goals against Hull City, Liverpool, Manchester United, Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest. But issues arose due to his lack of mobility. He isn’t the most agile of players, nor could he challenge the likes of Leroy Sane, Jamie Vardy or Mohammed Salah to a foot-race. And yet, his coaches did not seem to acknowledge this. He was either played as an out-and-out #10, which would require much more dynamism than he possesses, or the aforementioned defensive midfielder, who was often left exposed when his colleagues went on marauding runs up the pitch. I would say that he would have been much more effective had he been played in a flat midfield three, where he would have had much more support from his teammates and been able to truly showcase his creative prowess.

But alas, he was not. Wenger, and then Emery, persisted in exposing him to positions with which he was not comfortable, and the cracks just got bigger and bigger. Penalties were conceded, possession was squandered, tough tackling was lacking. And, over the last few weeks, it has overwhelmed him. Shocking abuse from fans, consisting, among other things, of death threats against his wife and daughter, pushed him to breaking point. He lost it against Crystal Palace, but understandably so. Can you honestly say that, if thousands of people constantly criticised, harassed and threatened you, you would not be angry? Would you not, in spite of having respect for your club and your teammates, lash out, fight back, resist the hatred. If you say that, no, you would remain “professional” under any circumstance, then I do not believe you. I know that I couldn’t.

So all of this is not Xhaka’s fault. He is a young man of 27, tasked with carrying one of the world’s greatest football clubs on his shoulders. And if anything goes wrong, he, and a couple of others, are scathingly attacked, even if, as his teammate Shkodran Mustafi pointed out, they have not played. So have sympathy for Granit Xhaka, realise that he does have immense quality to his game, and realise that, like all of the rest of us, he is only human.