Granit Xhaka has hit back at his critics in the wake of the north London derby and insists Arsenal deserve more credit than they receive.
Xhaka came under scrutiny at the weekend after he fouled Heung-min Son to give away a penalty in the 2-2 draw with Tottenham.
Arsenal fought back from two goals down to secure a point at the Emirates and Xhaka says the Gunners have been unfairly criticized for their start to the match.
“Of course critics are always here,” he said. “The north London derby, I think we had a good game. I made a mistake with the penalty but if you saw the game, we could have won.
“We had a lot of chances but this is football. Nobody speaks about the chances, nobody speaks about how many we missed. They always speak about their mistakes.
“This is part of football.”
Switzerland is without Xherdan Shaqiri, who has asked not to be considered for international football in order to focus on his Liverpool career.
Reports in Switzerland have suggested Shaqiri is unhappy with manager Vladimir Petkovic’s decision to appoint Xhaka as captain of the national side.
However, Xhaka has played down rumours of a growing rift in the Switzerland camp.
“I can only speak about how important he is for this team,” said Xhaka.
“He is a great player, great quality. He can help us in every game and we are very disappointed that he is not here.
“But we have other players as well who have quality.
“I don’t want to speak about why and what happened, because I don’t know the reasons exactly, but we’ve lost a big player for these games.”
