Unai Emery insists Granit Xhaka is ‘very important player’ for Arsenal despite being booed by own fans during Aston Villa win

UNAI EMERY has defended Granit Xhaka after the midfielder was booed by his own fans during Arsenal’s win against Aston Villa on Sunday.

After the game, the Spaniard called Xhaka a “very important player” but Gunners fans were fuming online.

Ten-man Arsenal came from behind twice to win 3-2 thanks to goals from Nicolas Pepe, Calum Chambers and a late winner from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang after Ainsley Maitland-Niles had been sent off on 41 minutes.

The Gunners were losing 2-1 on 72 minutes when Emery subbed Xhaka and threw youngster Joe Willock into the action in his place.

The Swiss was booed all the way back to his seat by the home crowd and the fact their team went on to win after the 26-year-old was taken off was not lost on many fans.

But Emery leapt to his defence and said: “We need our supporters and we need them helping each player.

“It is our responsibility to transmit our commitment and Xhaka is doing this.

“He played very well on Thursday [in Frankfurt] and last week at Watford he did well.

“Here, I changed him because he played for 90 minutes on Thursday and I wanted to bring fresh players on.

“But Xhaka is a very important player for us. He has a big commitment here, he is improving.

“I am not asking people to support him but I assure you he is going to achieve his best things if the supporters help him.

“We are professional, Xhaka is an experienced player, he knows sometimes we can receive criticism and we need to be mature and continue working.

“For me he is a very important player and I am going to support him.

“I am going to decide when he plays and when not but he is important for us because is commitment and behaviour is great and he is a good player.”

Despite the manager’s impassioned defence, Gunners fans on Twitter had no time for sentiment.

One posted: “Xhaka has to be dropped, absolutely no doubt about that now. He’s too slow, full of mistakes & zero concentration.”

While another added: “NEVER PLAY XHAKA AGAIN!”