Comeback wins show Arsenal’s character – Granit Xhaka

Granit Xhaka insists Arsenal have shown their character in the past week after battling from behind to win on three occasions.

Arsenal have seen their attitude questioned in some quarters since the start of the season, with Watford captain Troy Deeney the most vocal critic following victory over the Gunners. Arsene Wenger defended his players following Deeney’s television criticism before Arsenal came from behind to beat Swansea 2-1 in their Premier League meeting at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday.

Sead Kolasinac and Aaron Ramsey struck in the second half after Sam Clucas had given the visitors a half-time lead.

That followed a 5-2 win at Everton where they had fallen behind to a Wayne Rooney goal, while 18-year-old Eddie Nketiah scored a brace on his home debut to turn the tables in the Carabao Cup victory over Norwich.

“It’s the third time in a week that the team have come from behind to win, that says a lot about this team,” Xhaka told arsenal.com after the comeback victory over Swansea. Lots of people talk about the character of our team, that it’s not right and that we need to do more. But we always show that we can come back.”

He added: “Today we were 1-0 down, last week we were 1-0 down, but we turned the games around and that shows the character of this team.

“The manager told us at half-time that we had to give more, that we had to be more aggressive and play quicker.

“You have to pay compliments to Swansea – they stood deep in the first half and were good defensively. In the second half, we played as we know we can and it was very important for us to win.”

Arsenal remain fifth in the table but are now just one point behind local rivals Tottenham, who sit third, ahead of a trip to face early pace-setters Manchester City next weekend.

For Swansea, they could yet end the weekend in the bottom three having won just twice in the league this season.

Paul Clement’s side now welcome fellow strugglers Brighton to the Liberty Stadium on Saturday, with defender Federico Fernandez admitting it is crucial.

“Brighton is a massive game at home,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll lose any confidence from the Arsenal game because we know how hard it is to get a result at the Emirates.

“We were very close to getting something but now it’s time to focus on the next game, which we have to look to win. We did well against Huddersfield in a game where we felt we needed to win and now we need to do the same thing again against Brighton.

“It’s disappointing we because we wanted to be better with the ball at the start of the second half, but they got some chances and they were clinical.”