Unai Emery has an interesting plan for the Arsenal captaincy.
Ahead of Emery’s first season in the Premier League, the new Gunners boss revealed that he hoped to have several leaders in his team.
Laurent Koscielny is expected to remain the club’s captain but with the French defender injured until December, Emery wants to figure out who else has what it takes to lead the team in Koscielny’s absence.
“We’ve spoken about that,” Emery said last month.
“My idea is to know every player and to know, also, the personality of the players. And then, I think my first idea is to have five captains in the team. But at the moment, I don’t know the names.”
Emery’s first signing at the Emirates, Stephan Lichtsteiner, showed what he’d be bringing to the club with the tirade he levelled at Swiss teammate Breel Embolo during the World Cup.
Lichtsteiner will certainly be one of Arsenal’s potential leaders while Emery has admitted that playmaker Mesut Ozil is also in with a shout to captain the side.
And Granit Xhaka is the most recent Arsenal player to announce himself as a definite leader in the pack.
During the Gunners’ 2-0 victory over Lazio this weekend, young forward Reiss Nelson opened the scoring in Stockholm.
https://twitter.com/DF_Arsenal/status/1025822556610355201
But after congratulating Nelson on the goal, Xhaka gave him a no-nonsense reminder of what was expected of him after the youngster was caught out of position moments earlier.
The leadership displayed by Xhaka went down a storm with Arsenal fans.
https://twitter.com/ArsenalBach/status/1025809793573900288
Loving Xhaka giving Nelson a bollocking for the previous phase before the goal, despite scoring it.
Good leadership.— DestructableCake (@DstructableCake) August 4, 2018
Xhaka , now you are showing some captaincy on the field 😊 During celebration of the goal calling out Nelson and pointing towards a mistake 👏👏👏 #ARSvLAZ #arsenal
— Abhijith🇫🇷 (@ITSABHITWEETING) August 4, 2018
https://twitter.com/Hollefreund/status/1025810163872149505
https://twitter.com/TheEmeryEra/status/1025820334707101696
Xhaka is captain material. Didn’t even let Nelson finish his celebration 😂
— SM (@md_gooner) August 4, 2018
Xhaka is a born leader. Giving advice to Nelson for a situation before the goal after congratulating him. One of the main contenders for Captaincy. (@df_arsenal) https://t.co/gQj1QInNDp
— GoonerViews (@GoonerViews) August 4, 2018
https://twitter.com/officialdaddymo/status/1025829868959748096
Idk what or why Xhaka was screaming at Nelson after his goal, but it was reassuring to see an Arsenal captain being proactive!
— Onè (@ZeArsenalist) August 5, 2018
