Is this the best Granit Xhaka's ever been for Arsenal?

The midfielder's rebirth has been key to the Gunners' hot start

I’ll admit it: In the summer of 2020, I wanted Granit Xhaka gone.

Fresh off Arsenal’s first of what would become back-to-back eighth-placed campaigns, as well as the armband controversy and a last-second decision to stay rather than return to Germany, Xhaka seemed like an example of everything that was going wrong at Arsenal, now about six months into Mikel Arteta’s tenure: He was reliable, but he wasn’t anything special. And the club was stuttering.

Who would’ve thought that a short 30 months later we’d be talking about Xhaka as the potential player of the season amid an Arsenal title charge, and a contract extension that would keep him at the club into his 30s. Certainly not me.

It turns out the secret to unlocking the best of Xhaka, whom I had long labeled a deep-lying playmaker with limited athleticism to track back defensively, was to play him even farther forward. And boy, has it worked.

As I set out to write this piece, a simple hypothesis: I think this is the best Granit Xhaka’s ever played for Arsenal. Now, let’s see what the numbers say.

Breaking down Xhaka by season