Francis Coquelin says he was “screaming at Granit to shoot” shortly before the Swiss midfielder scored his first Arsenal goal.
Xhaka found the top corner from 30 yards in second-half stoppage time to secure the Gunners’ 4-1 win at Hull City on Saturday afternoon - and Coquelin was full of praise for the strike after the match.
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“I think it was a superb finish,” the French midfielder told Arsenal Player. “I was right behind him and I don’t know if he was going to shoot, I was screaming at him ‘shoot, shoot’ in German.
“That’s a great strike to be fair, a great first goal to score for the club and hopefully many more to come as well. I think it was Mo who passed him the ball so I can’t claim the assist, but I’ll take a bit of it!”
Coquelin was pleased with Arsenal’s overall performance on Humberside.
“It was a good three points,” he added. “It was a difficult game, obviously the red card made it a bit easier for us but it was a tough match so it was really pleasing to get the win.
“It could have been nervy, but I think in the last few weeks we have shown our character, in the last two games we were behind and came back into it.
“Today we showed that even when a team comes back at us we have the character to finish it off. So that's good for the future and now we can concentrate on the next games coming up.”
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