Xhaka: We owed our supporters a reaction

Granit Xhaka admitted that our players felt they owed a performance for our supporters after a disappointing run, and they delivered by beating Chelsea 3-1.

After the disappointment of losing to Manchester City last week, we bounced back in style by putting three past the Blues during an excellent opening 45 minutes at Emirates Stadium to keep our title hopes alive.

And our Swiss midfielder revealed post-match that there was a burning desire within the squad to get back to winning ways after a four-match wait.

“We wanted to show a big reaction today, I think we did for 60 minutes,” he said. “It was a very good game and in the end, we deserved to win.

 

“We wanted to start with a lot of energy, and I think the first 45 minutes were nearly perfect. In the second half, we wanted to come out with a fourth and fifth [goal] as well. We were a bit disappointed with that but in the end, the three points are the most important thing.

“As a team, we put in a good effort today after the four games we didn’t win, and I think we needed the three points. It was very important.

“We needed a reaction for the fans, for ourselves as well to come back with confidence and hopefully we can continue like this for the next four games.”

   

The win puts us back on top of the Premier League table and keeps us within touching distance of City, whom we are hoping will drop points between now and the end of the campaign.

Granit believes that we can only look after what we can control, but feels that the history of the division means that anything is possible if we can stay in the race right until its conclusion.

“We have to do our job to take as many points as possible,” he added. “After that, we have to hope a little bit because we don’t have everything in our hands. 

“In the Premier League everything is possible. People are speaking about us in a good and bad way, but this is part of our job. We have to focus on ourselves, do our job and let’s see after.”