Pick that one out.
Arsenal may have thrashed Hull City 4-1 on Saturday, with Alexis Sanchez bagging himself a welcome brace, but there was no question about which strike was the pick of the bunch at the KCOM Stadium.
Granit Xhaka notched Arsenal’s fourth, deep into injury time, and it was one hell of a strike. Picking up the ball from Mohamed Elneny about 50 yards away from goal, he advanced into space before unleashing an unstoppable effort.
It had everything – power, swazz, placement – the lot. Poor Eldin Jakupovic in Hull’s goal didn’t stand a chance. Arsenal’s away contingent were ecstatic at both the audacity and execution of such a special goal.
Those on social media were also full of praise for their new favourite Xhaka – but it was mixed with a resentment towards Manchester United’s Paul Pogba. Or rather the media’s attitude towards him.
The general sentiment was and is that had Pogba scored a similar goal, all areas of the media would go into an absolute frenzy of exaggerated praise, whereas because it was Xhaka for Arsenal, not enough people cared.
Imagine if Pogba had scored that Xhaka goal.
— Billy Dunmore (@Dunmoreorless) September 17, 2016
Imagine if Pogba had scored this. We wouldn't ever hear the end of it. https://t.co/9tTSAgABUb
— Trust the Process (@aheadofthacurve) September 17, 2016
Imagine the scenes if that Dabbin' Dickhead Pogba had of scored the screamer Granit Xhaka did today … #afc
— AndyAFC (@G00ner71) September 17, 2016
If Pogba had scored Xhaka's goal……
……TalkSport would've dedicated a years worth of crap broadcasting to him.
— 🅾🅻🅳 🅱🅰🅻🅳 🅶🅾🅾🅽🅴🆁 (@OldBaldGooner) September 17, 2016
If Paul Pogba had scored that #Xhaka goal, BBC and Sky Sports would have dedicated an entire TV channel to him #Arsenal
— Vidur Kapoor. (@godbingeon) September 18, 2016
Completely blanked Xhaka's wonder goal there on Match of the Day. If that was Pogba, we'd have seen that five times in five different angles
— Hiten. (@HitenPatel13) September 17, 2016
https://twitter.com/officialdaddymo/status/777191236046319616
If Pogba had scored that Xhaka goal he'd be seen as the god of football. Fans would be bowing down in the streets.
— Calum (@CalArsenal) September 17, 2016
There was particular criticism directed towards Match Of The Day, for what was perceived as a snub. Many felt that the pundits in the studio did not highlight the goal in the way that they should have.
After receiving a whole throng of complaints from annoyed Arsenal supporters, Gary Lineker responded with this observation…
My favourite part of the evening is reading fans complaints about MOTD bias against their club. Never someone else's club, of course. 👍
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) September 17, 2016
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