Xhaka hardly getting over 80 passes is down to his style of play. That's not usually a problem for Santi or Elneny when playing. But they play a shorter passing game and it's pass and move, pass and move when they play.

I'm not even sure about a 3 man midfield with everyone playing their zones would work. We certainly could do with more structure there but the issue with Xhaka goes all the way back to when we played City during the pre season. When pressed and harassed, he'll make mistakes. Passes go astray and he's easily dispossessed. I recall Blink noticing how the majority of great passes we saw in those youtube clips over the summer were made under no pressure and defenders gave him loads of space. He knew he wouldn't that sort of time and space for us at Arsenal. It's a good observation because that's why he's not having the impact you expected. Wenger did say something weird about him being box to box but also said recently hat he is a deep laying player. He certainly doesn't play box to box for us and it has often been Coquelin pushing up further than Xhaka but that's in order to win the ball back early. Xhaka often sits deeper and I rarely see him burst from box to box.

If you had watched the first half of the City pre season game, you'd have seen how Xhaka struggled against the high press and we were boxed in for the first. Only until Elneny came on did we get a hold of the midfield and beat City. Xhaka would dwindle on the ball and have it pinched off his toes or get closed down when trying to sort his feet out. It's worth listening to Arsenal Vision podcast. They noticed this flaw in his game too and said it's down to him being so one footed and unwilling to pass the ball with his weaker foot. That's another good observation and explains why I have no faith in him playing against high pressing teams. If he receives it on his weaker side, he'll try to shift it to his left foot. It leaves him vulnerable and it looks like he's dwindling on the ball.

Not sure how you can conclude that I don't appreciate the intelligence of Theo, Iwobi and Ozil. I never once downplayed their intelligence. That statement in itself is just another demonstration of you undercutting Alexis. You're also playing semantics with this dropping back thing. His movement is what creates space for players to get in behind. He doesn't have to touch the ball. Rewatch Ozil's last goal with that header and assist from Ox. It's not just a case of it working against Chelsea. As said, we're seeing the fruits from that with the goals Theo, Ox, Iwobi and Ozil have scored this season. This is the most Ozil has ever scored in a season. Same goes for Ox.