Mikel Arteta threatened to sack Arsenal star who 'forgot' his position

To ‘unlock’ the full potential inside Granit Xhaka, the Arsenal coach threatened to go to extreme lengths.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta threatened to sack Granit Xhaka if the midfielder refused to adapt to his new position.

The 30-year-old Switzerland international has been one of the club’s standout performers this season. In 14 Premier League games, he has supplied three goals and three assists. His improved form has coincided with a change in role, having moved into a more advanced midfield role.

“I think it was a necessity,” Arteta told Jamie Carragher in an interview for Sky Sports.

“I think the squad wanted to evolve to another level and be more dominant and have more resources in the final third to attack and to score more goals. We needed to make that change.

“I spoke to him at the end of the season and said, ‘I need to unlock something in your brain because you’re so comfortable and confident playing in this area that you have forgotten what is actually going to win us the game and the team now demands somebody here, so unless you unlock that I’m going to have to do something about it’.

“He took it straight away. He’s a very intelligent player, he came to pre-season fitter than ever, slimmer than ever, and he knew that if we wanted to take the team to a different level, we had to change his role. He knew that was coming.”

‘You know you can count on Xhaka’

“We believed he has those qualities, those qualities were there to be exploited and they were hiding,” the Arsenal boss added about Xhaka.

“The team needed those qualities very much. As I said, he is extremely intelligent, he has the physical capacity to constantly threaten and occupy those spaces and recover his position quickly enough to have the balance we need. He’s been really consistent [in] the way he trains, and the way he practices to evolve to the demands we want for the team.

“He’s a special person, very straight, very honest, very loyal, and very passionate. So when you have someone like that you want to help him, you want to protect him. You want him to fulfill the talent he has.

“He’s made some mistakes and he’s learned from it, but he has always faced adversity and difficulty and he’s never run away from it. This is what all managers want from their players. You know you can count on him, he will fight and break walls for you. This is what we expect from our players.”