Xhaka stripped of Arsenal captaincy

Posted Wednesday, November 06, 2019 by PA

Granit Xhaka has been stripped of the Arsenal captaincy, manager Unai Emery has announced.

Emery told Xhaka on Tuesday morning he was no longer part of the Gunners’ leadership group and said that Xhaka “accepted” the decision.

The Spaniard revealed the news at a press conference ahead of Arsenal’s Europa League clash with Portuguese side Vitoria in Guimaraes on Wednesday.

The 27-year-old Switzerland international has been left out of the squad for the match.

Xhaka has not played for the club since he told fans to “f*** off” when he was booed following his substitution against Crystal Palace on October 27th.

He revealed death threats against his wife and messages wishing his daughter got cancer pushed him to “boiling point” and that is why he lashed out at fans.

“My feeling of not being understood by fans, and repeated abusive comments at matches and in social media over the last weeks and months have hurt me deeply,” he wrote in an Instagram post four days after the incident.

“People have said things like ‘We will break your legs’, ‘Kill your wife’ and ‘Wish that your daughter gets cancer’.

“That has stirred me up and I reached boiling point when I felt the rejection in the stadium on Sunday.”

Xhaka and his replacement as captain, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, did not travel as the likes of Mesut Ozil, David Luiz and Calum Chambers were also rested.

Vitoria head coach Ivo Vieira almost led his side to a memorable victory at Arsenal but is expecting a tougher test on Wednesday.

The Primeira Liga team twice took the lead at the Emirates Stadium last month before a brace of Nicolas Pepe free-kicks ensured Arsenal kept their perfect start to Group F alive with a 3-2 win.

Unfancied Vitoria caused plenty of problems in London, scoring their first goals of the group stage and threatening to heap more pressure on under-fire Arsenal boss Unai Emery.

The performance will have given plenty of Portuguese supporters hope of a famous result at the Estadio D. Afonso Henriques – the stadium which hosted both of England’s Nations League finals matches in the summer.

The game kicks off at 15:50GMT with Vitoria unable to play on Thursday – the same night as near-neighbours Braga and Porto – and a clash with Wednesday’s later Champions League fixtures also needs to be avoided.

And Vieira has warned anyone harbouring expectations of a similar game to the reverse tie that it will be more difficult this time around.

“Our goal is to win,” he told reporters at his pre-match press conference. “But my expectation is that this game will be more difficult for the zeal that was created and for the expectation that we could have won and it did not happen.

“That has to give us a lot of balance to not be ‘thirsty’ for the win and allow Arsenal in transition to make the game complicated for us.”

Meanwhile, Bruno Duarte – the Vitoria forward who put the visitors in front for the second time a fortnight ago – insists they have to do better than simply “play well” if they want to pull off the shock this time.

“It is not enough to play well to defeat a big opponent,” he said. “We have to be as careful as possible.

“We cannot concede goals and we have to be prepared to score our own. Plenty of good work is being done to try and find the victory.”