Ex-Arsenal star Granit Xhaka launches unusual rant at team-mates - even though they won

Furious Granit Xhaka hit out at his Bayer Leverkusen team-mates for their defensive sloppiness despite winning a thrilling contest against Werder Bremen 4-3.

The Bundesliga champions scored in added time to claim a home win that ensures they remain three points behind early pacesetter Bayern Munich.

But afterwards former Arsenal midfielder Xhaka raged about their concessions, which all came in the opening period, and called on the dressing room to raise their level while questioning whether they really are a top team.

Xabi Alonso’s outfit have now shipped nine goals in their opening four games, while losing at home to RB Leipzig last month. And with Bayern, under new head coach Vincent Kompany, desperate to return to the top following last season’s shocker there is precious room for error if Leverkusen are to retain their title.

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“We don't need to talk about injury time here,” Xhaka told BILD after Victor Boniface secured three points in the 93rd minute against Bremen. We need to be honest with each other, self-critical enough: this is not enough.

“It can't be that we concede three goals every game. Especially the way we concede the goals.

“It's not that the opponent takes us apart, combines beautifully and then scores the goals. It's just that we don't make the runs well enough.

“We call ourselves a top team. But a top team doesn't concede three goals in 45 minutes. It's about the whole team. We need to be much more specific defensively, we're leaving too much space.

"With the ball we're good as always. But without the ball we don't have the spacing that made us so good last season. That's not aggressive enough.

"I'm someone who is very honest with myself. I hope the others are too: like today - with the three goals conceded like against Leipzig - it's not enough.

"Of course we have the quality to score ten goals per game. We won, that's all well and good. But I'm not interested in winning. I'm interested in why we're not playing compactly."

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