Quote Originally Posted by Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie View Post
I don't think he is a downgrade on Arteta but i would agree with you that in buying Xhaka that's exactly what Wenger was trying to replicate.

I think like any player he needs time in order to establish himself in the side, but i think before Arteta's legs went he gave us something in terms of ball distribution that Xhaka now gives us.

Was he worth the money we paid for him?....No of course not, but Mustafi wasn't worth 35million either....it's just what we had to pay.
I think Arteta, although not the strongest, was a more disciplined player when it came to defending. We were able to play him straight away when he arrived because he was ready for the Prem. I think the defensive and positional part of Xhaka’s game is keeping him out of our squad. If he covered and tackled well, Coquelin would be out of the squad. But saying that, I don’t know why Wenger isn’t playing him alongside Coquelin more often either.

I think Mustafi is a different story to Xhaka in terms of the fee we paid. We had an injury crisis in our defence with both Merts and Gab out injured. We had no choice but to pay that fee or go without a solid starter. Xhaka was our first signing of the summer and he seemed like a player we were scouting before the actual deal. I’m not sure what they had in mind for him when signing. I would have preferred for us to go for a player similar to how Santi plays especially after losing Rosicky. But what’s done it done.