Country: Kosova
Player:Saka
That's a fair assessment.
However I think one of the key reasons why we went downhill in terms of being more technical, is due to the damn injury that Cazorla received on that dead-rubber game against Bulgarian farmers which we won 6-0 (October 2016).
Before that injury, Cazorla and Xhaka were forming a terrific partnership in our midfield. If you look at the highlights from the matches during that period (list below), we were dominating teams in midfield.
After the loss of opening day at home to Liverpool (in which Xhaka was not s starter), we only dropped 2 points away to Leicester. From that point on, we simply steam rollered past teams, while having a respectable away draw against a very strong PSG (led by Emery
)Here's how our results looked like until Cazorla injury
Liverpool 3-4 (L)
Leicester City 0-0 (D)
Watford 1-3 (W) - Cazorla and Xhaka were simply superb in this match.
Southampton 2-1 (W)
PSG 1-1 (D)
Hull City 1-4 (W)
Nottingham Forest 0-4 (W)
Chelsea 3-0 (W)
FC Basel 2-0 (W)
Burnley 0-1 (W)
Swansea City 3-2 (W) - Xhaka gets his first red card for a rash challenge on middle of pitch, fans get on his back
Ludogorets 6-0 (W) - Although Xhaka was eligible to play, Wenger opts for Cazorla and then this ****ing injury to Santi happens
Leicester City 0-0 (D)
Watford 1-3 (W) - Cazorla and Xhaka were simply superb in this match.
Southampton 2-1 (W)
PSG 1-1 (D)
Hull City 1-4 (W)
Nottingham Forest 0-4 (W)
Chelsea 3-0 (W)
FC Basel 2-0 (W)
Burnley 0-1 (W)
Swansea City 3-2 (W) - Xhaka gets his first red card for a rash challenge on middle of pitch, fans get on his back
Ludogorets 6-0 (W) - Although Xhaka was eligible to play, Wenger opts for Cazorla and then this ****ing injury to Santi happens
Soon after this, our performances start to falter quite obviously and later in that season a lack of a midfield signing in summer proved to be such a major factor to us losing the title race to Leicester.
If there's one thing I cannot forgive Wenger for, is having Cazorla play on that dead-rubber CL match against Ludo. He was already overplayed as he had a history with fatigue related injuries, and the match with Ludo was a perfect opportunity to provide him with a breather, as Xhaka was eligible to play. We were never the same team after the injury to Cazorla.
