Swiss midfielder Granit Xhaka was sent off for throttling Burnley’s Ashley Westwood as the Gunners went down to a 1-0 defeat at home to Burnley on Sunday night – their fourth successive Emirates defeat in the league.
Sky Sports presenter and Arsenal fan Laura Woods did a superb takedown of Granit Xhaka and some of his Gunners teammates who “don’t want to play” for manager Mikel Arteta.
Xhaka was sent off just before the hour mark in Sunday night’s 1-0 home defeat to Burnley, in which Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored an own goal literally by not using his head rightfully and condemned the hosts to a fourth successive Emirates Stadium defeat in the Premier League.
Arsenal now occupies a precarious 15th place in the table, with pressure intensively mounting on Gunners boss Mikel Arteta as he deeply ponders a way to arrest the club’s steep downward spiral.
Woods, in the talkSPORT Breakfast show, launched into a deservedly scathing criticism of Xhaka and his teammates on Monday morning.
“What really winds me up is that Arsenal are meant to be a top team in the Premier League,” she said.
“They are all probably on excellent wages at that club, you live in London and have a great life, you’ve got a manager coming in who wants to play great football – potentially – and you don’t have the discipline to be a professional footballer and conduct yourself on the pitch in the way you are supposed to.
“Granit Xhaka has had numerous warnings before; he’s had the wrath of Arsenal fans, he was the captain and had it stripped off him.
“He’s had numerous chances again and again, and at that moment there is literally no excuse for it.
“Don’t throttle a player who wasn’t even really involved and is probably one of the smallest players on the pitch! It was just such an odd thing…
“It wasn’t even a fiery moment of madness; there were two moments in there and he had the opportunity to walk away and he didn’t. And he carried on and throttled Ashley Westwood and got sent off, quite rightfully.
“[Mohamed] Elneny could have been sent off as well and we could have been down to nine men! It could have been even worse and I think we’re quite lucky to get away with a 1-0 loss at home.
“Why are you a Premier League footballer and can’t control yourself on the pitch?
“Whether or not you think Mikel Arteta is the right man for the job, he is the one who will have to suffer for it.
“And the Arsenal fans who paid their money to watch that after not going for nine months get to watch that dross…
“I don’t know where to start with it, because I feel like there are players in that dressing room who don’t want to play for him, probably don’t want to play for themselves…
“I just don’t get it.”
We’re sure nobody else gets it either.