Unai Emery Explains Reasons for Leaving Granit Xhaka Out of Arsenal Squad for Wolves Game

​Granit Xhaka has been excluded from Arsenal's squad to face Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday because of his 'emotions', according to Gunners boss Unai Emery.

The Swiss reacted angrily to jeers from the Emirates Stadium crowd as he made his way off of the pitch during his side's 2-2 draw against Crystal Palace on Sunday. He has been targeted by a large section of the fan-base following a frustrating start to the season, with supporters criticising the captain after the club stumbled to four draws and two losses in their first ten top-flight matches.

Emery and his tactics have also been attacked by ​Arsenal fans, his regular selection of Xhaka in lineups leaving many perplexed, given the skipper's indifferent form in the early months of 2019/20.

Speaking ahead of the ​Wolves clash about the 27-year-old's absence, the coach stated (as quoted by the ​Mirror): "He is training normally, but like every human he feels emotions. Xhaka's issues last week need time to recover the normality with him and with us.

"Everybody will have some social media on their phone, on the internet, on the web, but really to use it is only to be intelligent. We can respect the people on social media, but we have to separate how much of it is real and whether every supporter is following that."

Countless comments had been made on social media, chastising both Xhaka and Emery. Nevertheless, the midfielder has ​written an apology to supporters, explaining why he told viewers at the Emirates to 'f**k off'.

Emery continued: "In the stadium, it is normal when we are not winning that they respond with some criticism. Then, when you come back with a good performance, they forget that and they applaud the players.

"Our objective is to win [on Saturday], connect with the people and for the supporters to respond to us, and help us in the 90 minutes. Xhaka has said sorry, he gave apologies to the supporters, to everybody, and now the focus is on our next match."

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