Gary Neville believes Granit Xhaka’s poor disciplinary record will "always let Arsenal down" - and Mikel Arteta should be preparing to replace him in the Gunners side.
The Switzerland midfielder received his first booking of the new Premier League season in Arsenal’s 2-0 victory against Crystal Palace on Friday night when he was shown a yellow card for simulation.
It was his 53rd yellow card for Arsenal in the top-flight with the 29-year-old having developed a reputation for being on the receiving end of disciplinary action from referees.
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Xhaka played well on the whole as the Gunners picked up all three points at Selhurst Park but Neville thinks the yellow card was needless and hinted Arteta should be looking at potentially moving on from him in the long-term.
"Xhaka tonight, he got booked you always think he’s going to let you down at some point so you should plan for that because it’s coming," Neville told Sky Sports.
"A midfielder would be a really good transfer window, it’s been a good transfer window anyway but that’d finish it off."
Former Gunners full-back Lee Dixon also stuck the boot in on Xhaka as he appeared as a pundit on NBC Sports. Dixon said: "That is a dive, quite rightly booked and for a man of his experience, stupid!"
Arteta has stuck by Xhaka ever since he replaced Unai Emery in the Emirates dugout in 2019 and the midfielder gave an insight into his manager’s methods in the All or Nothing: Arsenal series.
"Mikel is very, very special," Xhaka said in the first episode of Amazon Prime show. "I've already had a lot of coaches.
"He is a freak, but in a positive way because he sees details none of my other coaches would have seen."
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