Gabriel Jesus summed up the feelings of many Arsenal fans as he declared "finally" while passing Granit Xhaka his Man of the Match award after Saturday afternoon's North London Derby triumph.
Xhaka scored the Gunners' third goal at the Emirates as they outclassed local rivals Tottenham to send themselves four points clear at the top of the Premier League. Aside from a poor misjudgement that lead to Spurs being awarded a penalty which Harry Kane converted in the first half, the Swiss dominated the midfield battle and took his goal well in the 67th minute to all but secure victory for the hosts.
Thomas Partey and Gabriel Jesus netted Arsenal's other goals in their thoroughly-deserved victory, which underlined their credentials as challengers for the title. But it was Xhaka who earned BT Sport's Man of the Match award, much to the delight of his Brazilian teammate.
As Jesus handed over the award, he said "finally", as he is clearly of the opinion that Xhaka has deserved the award on more occasions this season - although he also appeared to joke that his performance warranted the award too. The 30-year-old has been playing like a man transformed in recent weeks, flourishing in the advanced midfield role Mikel Arteta has entrusted him with.
Xhaka has chipped in with two goals and three assists this season, while his imposing displays in the centre of the park have dominated many an opponent. The former Borussia Monchengladbach star was delighted by the character Arsenal showed to recover from letting their lead slip with 31 minutes on the clock and insisted they were fully deserving of their victory.
" We didn't have a lot of weeks to prepare because of the national team break but, yeah, we saw it in training that we're ready and we know what we want," Xhaka told BT Sport.
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"From the first second, I think we were the better team. After the goal we conceded, struggling, but this is part of football. The second half, it was much better." Xhaka added: "My first derby goal in England, more than happy to help the team. Most important thing is the team and individually, the class we have, so happy to win."
Xhaka has established himself as one of the first names on the Arsenal team sheet nearly three years on from when he was embroiled in a fierce row with fans, resulting in him being stripped of the captaincy by then-manager Unai Emery.
Peter Crouch hailed how Xhaka has rebuilt his reputation at the Emirates, saying: " Throwing the captain's armband, the booing he was getting, to come back from that shows the character. I think he owes a lot to Thomas Partey in there, because he allows him to play further forward but he's confident, got the crowd on his side. It's a credit to him."
