Whether it’s needless red cards, dramatically changing a fanbase’s opinion or the distribution of house keys, Granit Xhaka knows what he’s talking about.
The wily Swiss midfielder also has some pearls of wisdom regarding continental competition. “European football is totally different than the Premier League,” Xhaka declared with characteristic bluntness.
Arsenal may be riding high at the top of the Premier League, which ranks as the best in the world according to UEFA’s coefficient (and every Sky Sports advert), but they were dumped out of the Europe League, Europe’s secondary club competition, in the round of 16 by Sporting CP – one of Portugal’s so-called Big Three which currently sits fourth in the top flight.
With qualification for next season’s Champions League a formality, here’s why Arsenal could face a rude awakening on their return to Europe’s top table.
The Gunners have been all about consistency in terms of Premier League personnel this season. Eight Arsenal players have featured in at least 80% of the team’s league minutes this season. No other top-flight club in England has as many regulars.
Title rivals Manchester City only have three players with so much game time and Chelsea, the only other English side left in the Champions League, have just one player that has completed such a large share of minutes.
The revered Soviet coach Valeriy Lobanovskyi preached that the quality of the connections between players was more important than the ability of the individuals. This is borne out when Mikel Arteta deviates from his regular lineup, forming new partnerships which have had little time to develop and robbing his side of the normal fluency which has led them to the Premier League summit.
After the Gunners bowed out of the Europa League last 16 on penalties to Sporting following a 3-3 aggregate draw, Arteta bemoaned: “We didn’t find our rhythm and flow, allowed too many spaces, didn’t dominate and gave the ball away many times.”
After each week of watching Arsenal win with a scarcely unchanged team, opponents are no longer surprised by Arteta’s approach and have begun to form a blueprint of frustration by sitting deep and waiting to spring forward on the counter.
“You can see that every team is playing different…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at 90min EN…