Ian Wright Demands Apology From Xhaka For Palace Histrionics
Arsenal legend Ian Wright has implored Granit Xhaka to apologise to the club’s supporters following his angry reaction to his substitution against Crystal Palace on Sunday.
Arsenal took a two-goal lead through Socratis Papastathopoulos and David Luiz but were pegged back by a Luka Milivojevic penalty and a Jordan Ayew header before the hosts had a late effort ruled out by VAR.
On a dramatic day at the Emirates Stadium, Xhaka, who was named captain in September following Laurent Koscielny’s summer departure, dominated the headlines after taking issue with a section of the Arsenal fans for jeering him off as he left the pitch as a 61st minute substitute.
Xhaka cupped his ear as the jeers grew louder, and could be seen ranting back in anger before taking off his jersey and storming down the tunnel.
Manager Unai Emery disagreed with Xhaka’s reaction after Sunday’s game and now the club’s second all-time top scorer, Ian Wright, has demanded an apology from the Switzerland international.
"He should apologise. That's the captain. He should have apologised already,” Wright said on BBC Match of the Day 2.
"[If he apologises] it's not a case of that's the end of it, but that's the guy they've chosen as the captain and that's not captain's behaviour.
"Arsenal fans have showed a lot of patience with him and the performances he's put in. He owes them a lot more than acting like that."
This is not the first time Xhaka has been booed by his own fans; he suffered similar vilification at the hands of the Emirates Stadium faithful when he was substituted in the 3-2 win over Aston Villa last month.
"Players getting booed is not the best at the best of times," Wright added.
"I think they're frustrated with the fact he's not run off the pitch. I've seen him substituted before and he's bolted off the pitch.
"This time he's walked off. Now he's goading them.
"We're talking about fans that have watched him play, in the four years he's been there, a handful of good games and he's treating the fans like that."
"He's the captain, so he's got the responsibility of being able to take that on board because he's been voted as the captain."
"You can't go like that. The amount of stick that someone like Mesut Ozil's got, I can understand if Mesut Ozil came off and threw his shirt down, but [Xhaka] is the captain; the manager's got faith in him."
