Unai Emery has confirmed that former captain Granit Xhaka will be left out of Arsenal’s important match against in-form Leicester City on Saturday.

According to Emery, it was Xhaka’s decision not to return to action this weekend.

The Swiss midfielder has not featured in any of Arsenal’s last three matches sequel to his outburst at Gunners fans in the clash with Crystal Palace last month.

Xhaka has since been stripped of the captaincy and replaced with Aubameayang, his Arsenal future now hanging in the balance aswell.


When asked at a press conference whether Xhaka would be back in the squad for the trip to the King Power Stadium, Emery replied: “Not yet.

“I spoke with him on Tuesday about how he’s feeling now and how he is in his mind.

“He’s working well, he’s training well, but he said to me that he’s not feeling good enough at the moment to play. We are going to wait.”

The timing of Xhaka’s outburst has come at a bad time for Emery, with the Spaniard now under pressure to get a result at Leicester without his key midfielder, if they are to keep their top-four hopes alive.

Emery said: “Is this must-win? Yes. But in our mind, for each match, it is only to win.

“The most important is our mentality and going there thinking: ‘We are Arsenal.’ And we will go there with confidence and also strong in our mentality to be together to go to work against them.”