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Patrice Evra has claimed that Arsenal legend Thierry Henry once ‘turned off the television’ after watching Granit Xhaka lead the Gunners onto the field as captain.
The Arsenal midfielder was sent off for grabbing Burnley’s Ashley Westwood by the neck during the second half of the game on Sunday night.
Mikel Arteta’s team lost the game after Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang headed into his own net to sink the Gunners to their seventh loss of the season in just 12 Premier League games.
After the match, Evra hit the Swiss midfielder and recalled a story about Thierry Henry’s feelings towards the 28-year-old, which he said sums up how ‘the club legends feel about him’.
Evra said during Sky Sports post-match coverage: ‘We are talking about Xhaka, I’ll tell you a quick story. Thierry Henry invited me to his house one day and said ‘come Patrice, let’s watch the Arsenal game’.
He turned on the television. The first image we saw on the screen was Xhaka leading Arsenal, being the captain: Thierry Henry turned off the television.
‘I said’ What happened? ‘. He said ‘I can’t see my team and Xhaka being the captain of my team’, and we didn’t watch the match.
‘We started talking about a lot of things and he turned off the screen. He tells you everything the legends of this club think of him. Again he disappointed his team.
‘We criticize Pepe a lot, but Xhaka is not the first time. I remember even two years ago I made a comment about Arsenal saying that the team looked like babies and he said ‘Patrice Evra is not the first time he talks about us.
‘I remember the next game, they substitute him or he gets out and takes off his shirt and throws it on the ground. So, we had enough of Xhaka. I think Arsenal fans have had enough of him. ‘
Sky Sports host David Jones, in response to Evra’s comments, said: ‘Well, Thierry is not here to confirm that story, so maybe we have to be a little careful about that.
It is by no means the first time Evra has hit Xhaka or Arsenal, labeling them as babies after a 1-0 loss to Sheffield United last season.
He told Sky Sports at the time: ‘They (Sheffield United) deserved the win, but I’m not surprised about Arsenal. “I used to call them ‘my babies’ ten years ago and they are still babies when I look at them.
“I’m not being disrespectful when I say that, it’s just the feeling I have with this team.”
Xhaka was the team captain that day, which was a week before the fateful 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace, in which Arsenal gave away a 2-0 lead.
The game saw Xhaka involved in an angry confrontation with his own supporters after he reacted angrily to taunts from Arsenal supporters when they took him out after the hour mark.
He cupped the fans’ ears sarcastically and removed his jersey in a match that at the time seemed to mark the end of his Arsenal career.
Xhaka went on to lose the captaincy, but would later rejoin the first team.
After his actions against Burnley, Xhaka was also criticized by Evra’s Sky Sports expert, Graeme Souness.
He said: ‘People say in the modern game, in the game at any time, he has been fouled. Just accept that it will be a yellow card. It’s a lunge, I’m late and then he gets into that nonsense.
And then Westwood accidentally trips him and then (Xhaka) grabs Westwood by the neck and the referee is three feet away. They are things you see on the playground.
When he sees that, he stumbles upon Westwood. I’m trying to put myself in that situation, you feel like you’ve been pushed on purpose, but their reaction is totally wrong. His first action is a foul and a yellow card because he is clumsy and not alert to the situation.
I’ve been caught off guard, I’ll jump in here. Why do you want to square? Go away thinking it’s a foul, I’ll take this on the chin, but I’ll get into it. I said about this guy a couple years ago: he was running and he hit the ground. ‘
Henry is one of Arsenal’s greatest legends and is their record scorer after scoring 228 goals in 377 appearances.
The Frenchman was the Gunners’ own captain during the 2005-06 season after Patrick Vieira left the club.
Xhaka’s expulsion did not help Arsenal, who fell in a late defeat and placed 15th in the Premier League.
The loss adds to the pressure on manager Mikel Arteta, who has struggled to get his Gunners shooting so far this season.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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