Arteta presses Arsenal to sign PL star who could usurp Odegaard’s captaincy

Final season was a troublesome one for Mikel Arteta and his Arsenal crew, with accidents and poor type hampering their ambitions for glory.

Nonetheless, issues are very totally different this 12 months, with the Gunners topping each the Premier League and Champions League, reaching the fourth spherical of the FA Cup and making ready for a League Cup semi-final in opposition to intercity rivals Chelsea.

This season is beginning to really feel like one through which the North Londoners have lastly hit the ceiling in a number of competitions, and an enormous motive for that’s the high quality and depth they added to the squad in the summertime.

Surprisingly, Arteta and his crew look like trying to additional enhance the standard of their squad this 12 months, with studies linking them with a prime Premier League star who might problem for captain Martin Odegaard’s armband.

Arsenal are concentrating on their subsequent captain

Final season was a troublesome one for the entire Arsenal crew, nevertheless it felt very true for Odegaard.

The Norwegian suffered a reasonably critical ankle harm early on, and when he rejoined the crew he seemed miles away from the tempo and shadow of his former mercurial self.

Thankfully, as this season progresses, the previous Actual Madrid surprise is beginning to resemble the midfielder who received back-to-back Participant of the 12 months awards just some years in the past.

For instance, FBref ranks the 27-year-old within the prime 1% of Premier League midfielders for progressive passing, prime 3% for shot creation motion, and prime 6% for assists amongst Premier League midfielders, with a rating of 90.

In different phrases, so long as he can keep wholesome and his upward trajectory continues, his spot within the midfield this season is fairly secure.

Nonetheless, there has all the time been hypothesis about his position as captain and the membership seem eager to signal a participant who will give him extra competitors for the armband subsequent season.

Not less than that is in accordance with a current report from Soccer Transfers, which claims Arsenal are nonetheless focused on Marc Gehi.

The truth is, the report claims Arteta is urgent the membership to signal the Crystal Palace star, whose contract expires in the summertime.

Nonetheless, Liverpool have the identical thought, with Manchester Metropolis persevering with to push for his signature this month.

That would complicate a transfer to get him over the road, however given Gehi’s immense capability, he is among the gamers Arsenal ought to be in competition for even when they lose the captaincy from Odegaard.

Why was Guehi capable of usurp Odegaard’s captaincy?

Now, it have to be mentioned that there’s a good likelihood that Gehi will be a part of Arsenal in the summertime and Odegaard will proceed as captain in the interim.

In spite of everything, his teammates picked him and Arteta appears completely glad along with his position.

Nonetheless, it can’t be ignored that his position as membership captain has lengthy been a supply of controversy among the many fan base and a few specialists.

The truth is, it was solely final 12 months that Arsenal himself mentioned, “You possibly can’t win the league with Odegaard as captain.”

Moreover, the truth that the Norwegian is a reasonably quiet chief definitely would not assist in a sport that principally sees essentially the most vocal and spectacular people promoted to management positions.

So, though the case in opposition to the Drammen-born maestro has been resolved, why may Guehi lastly take the armband?

Nicely, to start with, he’s already captain of Crystal Palace and has been for a while.

Greater than that, he was additionally one of many youngest gamers within the membership’s historical past when he was given the prospect to steer the crew in 2022 at simply 21 years previous.

As if that wasn’t spectacular sufficient already, the defensive “monster”, as journalist Bobby Manzi referred to as him, can also be the one captain within the membership’s historical past to steer his crew to a serious honor, successful the FA Cup final season.

Nevertheless it’s not simply at membership degree that the previous Chelsea treasure has stepped up, having now received 26 senior caps and being probably the most vital gamers for Euro 2024, he’s arguably the nation’s prime centre-back.

Lastly, regardless of being solely 25 years previous, the Abidjan-born big has a wealth of expertise.

Along with his worldwide appearances, he has made two appearances for the Blues, 59 for Swansea Metropolis and 188 for Palace.

In spite of everything, if Arsenal can signal Guehi this summer season, they need to, even when his arrival might result in a change in captaincy sooner or later.