Arsène Wenger is confident Granit Xhaka will make a significant impact at Arsenal but the manager has called for patience because the £30m summer signing needs time to get used to the pace of the Premier League. The Switzerland international has been used sparingly, starting only twice, with Wenger favouring the tried and tested partnership of Francis Coquelin and Santi Cazorla.
Wenger believes Xhaka will be best suited to playing as a box-to-box player and says the midfielder’s omission from the starting XI in the past two games, against Southampton and Paris Saint-Germain, was because he wanted familiarity in the centre of the pitch.
“It’s not about his quality at the moment as he adapts to the pace of the English game,” Wenger said. “And for me it’s about pairs as well who work together. Coquelin and Cazorla have worked well together. He will play games and every week he is stronger and better. He will have a huge impact as a player.
“He has the stature, he has the power, he has the strength. What we want is to use that in a very efficient way. We are in September, we started in August so it’s one month. Many players take time to get into the team, but he will do that without any problem.
“I personally prefer him as a box-to-box player, because he has the engine, he has the power, he has the long pass. He likes to come deep and distribute the game, but he has the engine to have the impact with his runs.”
Wenger added that Xhaka and Mohamed Elneny, who arrived from Basel in January, are “top, top quality” but “there’s big competition in midfield at the moment”. That is without considering Aaron Ramsey, who is yet to recover from has a hamstring injury.
Olivier Giroud is also not expected to play against Hull on Saturday. The France striker, who was sent off in the 1-1 draw at PSG on Tuesday, has injured a big toe. He has yet to start this season, with Wenger citing a lack of fitness following the European Championship, though the 29-year-old played for France in recent games against Italy and Belarus.
“Since last week he’s slowly getting back to full fitness,” Wenger said, before backtracking and saying Giroud picked up an injury at the Parc des Princes.