Mikel Arteta’s stance on changing Arsenal captain amid Martin Odegaard woes

There has been suggestion that Mikel Arteta should strip Martin Odegaard of the Arsenal captaincy following a series of disappointing performances.

At the start of the season, Odegaard was considered a player Arsenal couldn’t live without and it was no surprise that the team struggled when he was sidelined for three months with a knee injury.

There was delight when he returned to action in November but he’s yet to get back to his best, scoring just one Premier League goal since the turn of the year as the Gunners lost the title race to Liverpool.

He has recorded three assists in his last three league games but was partly at fault for Crystal Palace’s last equaliser at the Emirates and was largely anonymous as Arsenal were dumped out of the Champions League by PSG.

The attacking midfielder’s alarming drop in form has not gone unnoticed, with Alan Shearer and Frank Leboeuf among those to criticise his recent performances.

Former Liverpool defender Mark Lawrenson has even gone as far as to tell Arteta to take the armband away from the 26-year-old and hand it to Declan Rice.

Odegaard was made Arsenal captain in 2022 following the departures of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette, and is also skipper of the Norway national team.

But with the Gunners’ trophy drought now extending to a sixth year, his leadership skills have come under fire.

Jorginho, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Magalhaes have also captained Arsenal in the league this season, but, while well-regarded for his leadership skills, Rice has not.

The midfielder would be a top candidate to takeover the captaincy having previously worn the armband for West Ham and England.

Nevertheless, it seems that Arteta will keep faith with his current skipper, with The Athletic reporting that they are ‘fairly certain’ that Odegaard will still be Arsenal captain at the start of next season.

It’s a decision that Rice himself agrees with, having thrown his support behind Odegaard earlier this week.

‘Obviously, everyone has dips in form, I’ve had different dips in form before, [but] it doesn’t matter because he can deliver on the biggest stage,’ he said of his teammate prior to the second-leg of the semi-final loss to PSG.

‘We’re always with Martin because he’s one of our best players. He’s our leader, he’s our captain.

‘He trains every single day, he plays every minute of every game. He’s one of the best lads I’ve seen away from the pitch in terms of how he lives his life.

‘He’s got the full respect of the dressing room, the way he demands, the way he drives the team, the way he speaks. You wouldn’t see him as that type of character, but he really is behind the scenes.

‘He’s been amazing for us and I wouldn’t want anyone else being our captain. I think the lads feel the same way about that as well.’

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