Striding angrily from the pitch to the Emirates Stadium tunnel, Granit Xhaka went through an experience that few, if any, have walked and returned from. I watched from the North Bank as Arsenal’s captain, my captain, cupped his hand to his ear and then proceeded to tear off his shirt and storm down into the bowels of the ground.
What Xhaka has achieved since that moment is quite miraculous. I never agreed with his reaction and cannot justify it, but I certainly understood why he did what he did and couldn’t begrudge him of the actions, the words that couldn’t be heard but were easily interpretable.
A man whose young child had received threats of abuse leading up to the point where it all just snapped. Those people that booed might not have been those same people, we can never be completely sure, but at that moment that didn’t matter.
