Search icon

Sport

20th Sep 2016

Arsenal newboy Granit Xhaka just can’t stop scoring screamers

He has scored both his shots on target since joining Arsenal.

Kevin Beirne

When you arrive at a club like Arsenal with a price tag of over £30m, certain things are expected of you.

When the Gunners announced that Swiss midfielder Granit Xhaka would be coming to North London back in May, Arsenal fans let out a collective “Who?”, as they rushed to find out more about the Borussia Moenchengladbach captain.

After an impressive display at Euro 2016, it was clear that Xhaka had the potential to be something special. And just a handful of games into his Arsenal career, the 23-year-old scored his first goal in English football with a long-range effort against Hull at the the weekend to guarantee a 4-1 victory for his side.

Not since Tomas Rosicky’s heyday have Arsenal had a player who has both the talent and the balls to have a pop from distance, but Xhaka has laid down a marker after scoring his second goal from distance in a week during their EFL Cup tie with Nottingham Forest.

With about a quarter of the game gone, Forest had the better of their higher league opponents, and former Gunners Henri Lansbury and Niklas Bendtner had threatened to team up to break the deadlock.

But it was Xhaka who found the net first after his 30-yard strike was deflected past Vladimir Stojkovic, who couldn’t get a strong enough hand to it to keep it out.

As you can imagine, Arsenal fans remained totally calm about the whole thing, pointing out that Xhaka’s shot had indeed been deflected.

Just kidding, they declared him the second coming of Christ now that he has scored with his only two shots on target as an Arsenal player.

 

https://twitter.com/LukasCheves/status/778324157599715328

And of course, there were the obligatory comparisons to a certain Manchester United midfielder.

But, Arsenal fans being Arsenal fans, there had to be a negative side to a new signing scoring two goals…

ffl_promo_endboard__no_warm-up_