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Mikel Arteta has reportedly handed new roles to Granit Xhaka and Gabriel Jesus, with both players now set to join the new leadership group at Arsenal.
THE LOWDOWN: NEW LEADERSHIP GROUP
Arsenal announced Martin Odegaard as the club’s permanent captain this summer, despite only being at the Emirates for one full season. Regardless of his young age, the Norwegian already commands respect in the dressing room and also has experience with leadership, as he currently wears the armband for his country.
Lacazette was the Arsenal captain for the second half of last season after his predecessor, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was stripped of the captaincy and eventually left for Barcelona in January. Lacazette also left the club to join former side Lyon when his contract expired in June.
Those departures left Mikel Arteta with a decision to make in terms of his leadership group and the Spaniard has now appointed two popular figures to support Odegaard in his new role.
THE LATEST: ARTETA APPOINTS XHAKA AND JESUS
As per The Athletic, Arteta has appointed Gabriel Jesus and Granit Xhaka as deputy captains and both players will support Odegaard in shouldering the leadership mantle at the club.
Xhaka famously lost the Arsenal armband in October 2019 after he appeared to boo his own fans while he was substituted in a home game against Crystal Palace. He was also linked with an exit to Roma last summer but eventually decided to stay, while recently admitting that Arteta helped him turn around his situation at the club.
Talking about immediate impact in a short time, you can best describe that with Jesus in an Arsenal jersey. The Brazilian has already become a fan favourite in little to no time and showed his worth with a stellar performance against Leicester City at the weekend, scoring two goals and supplying two assists.
Arteta has also hailed Jesus’ attitude and qualities off the pitch and coupled with his four-time Premier League winning experience, it makes sense to think that the 25-year-old has an elite mentality.
THE VERDICT: BOTH NAMES MAKE SENSE
To be fair, the only reason Xhaka isn’t the main captain today is because of the incident with the fans in 2019. Regardless, he is seen as a natural leader in the dressing room even without the armband so his appointment as deputy captain makes sense.
For Jesus, he is only set to get even more popular within the dressing room and among the fans. Hopefully, his new responsibility would even challenge him to do better on the pitch. The Brazilian’s relationship with the squad’s Portuguese-speaking contingent is also believed to be among the factors in the decision to appoint him as part of the leadership group.
Either of Jesus or Xhaka will now wear the armband whenever Odegaard is not on the pitch and there are no complaints about that.
