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Emery omits Granit Xhaka for A...

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Emery omits Granit Xhaka for Arsenal's clash with Wolves


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Granit Xhaka has been left out of Arsenal's squad for Saturday's Premier League meeting with Wolves.

The club captain apologised to fans on Thursday night, while also explaining his reasons for the angry reaction that came when he was substituted against Crystal Palace at the Emirates.

Xhaka was left out of the Arsenal panel beaten away to Liverpool in the Carabao Cup in midweek, and his manager Unai Emery has revealed the Swiss will also sit out the visit of Nuno Espirito Santo's side.

"It's not in my mind that he will play tomorrow,” Emery told his pre-match press conference, “I think that tomorrow, he is not going to play.

"I think that now, we need to be focused on the match at 100 per cent.

"Now we are going to train but at the moment, he's not in my mind [to play]."

Xhaka says he reached "boiling point" following abuse aimed at both his wife and daughter on social media when he threw off his jersey and mouthed expletives to the Emirates crowd last week.

Emery says the situation needs some time to properly cool down, "Xhaka’s issues last week is one issue that needs time to recover the normality with him and with us."

It was not revealed by Emery whether or not the 27-year old will be restored as captain when he eventually returns, hinting that Xhaka's statement may have come too late to save the armband, "We were waiting for his statement on Monday ahead of the last press conference here on Tuesday. The next step is tomorrow's match. The focus is tomorrow's match."

Xhaka is training normally with the rest of the squad, but just won't be involved tomorrow.

Emery has encouraged sensible use of social media from both fans and players, "Everybody maybe 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 also we have to separate how much is real and [whether or not] every supporter is following that.

"For me, the good response is how the supporters respond in our stadium.

"We have a lot of supporters around the world and we respect them but the real response is in the stadium."


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Arsenal Granit Xhaka Nuno Espírito Santo Premier League Unai Emery Wolves

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