Funny how £182million can just vanish these days. It’s what Arsenal laid out on new players in the last financial year, with an average £104,000-a-week salary to keep them all happy, even after a pay cut.Yet it still transpired that the walking calamity called Granit Xhaka was the man in possession at the pivotal moment.
Arsenal were passing the ball around their six-yard box, with no-one looking particularly willing or able to clear it, when Xhaka neglected to detect the 6ft 3in presence of Chris Wood standing in precisely the place where he elected to shift it.
No-one was more surprised than Wood when Xhaka’s pass rebounded off him and into the net.