- 16 hours ago
'This sums up Arsenal's problems' - Fans react after Xhaka refuses to take captain's armband
FT Desk
- 19 Feb 2022 11:04 CST
- 5 min read
Arsenal can never seem to get through an entire football match without some form of drama sprouting out of thin air.
On Saturday Mikel Arteta’s side looked perfectly comfortable in their Premier League clash with Brentford, following an opening goal from Emile Smith Rowe shortly after the break and a second from Bukayo Saka to confirm all three points.
However, something bizarre truly happened five minutes from time when Alexandre Lacazette was substituted off in place of Eddie Nketiah, forcing the French striker to hand off the captain’s armband that he’d been wearing through the match.
Nketiah then took the armband and assumed to simply give it to Granit Xhaka. Which would have been fine, had the midfielder not decided to reject it live on television. In the end Kieran Tierney took it, but the damage had already been done and, as ever, Arsenal fans took to social media to make their voices heard.
Twitter reacts to Xhaka’s actions
Eddie Nketiah went to give the captain’s armband to Granit Xhaka following Alexandre Lacazette’s substitution, but Xhaka refused. Kieran Tierney is now wearing the armband. #afc
— afcstuff (@afcstuff) February 19, 2022
Nketiah trying to give Xhaka the captain armband twice but Xhaka tells him to keep it.
— Osman 🎗 (@OsmanZtheGooner) February 19, 2022
Granit Xhaka saying he doesn’t want the armband. Bit odd
— Connor Humm (@TikiTakaConnor) February 19, 2022
Xhaka is actually forcing Nketiah to choose our next captain 😭
— James. (@afcjxmes) February 19, 2022
Xhaka is a weird dude….
— YankeeGunner (@YankeeGunner) February 19, 2022
Xhaka doesn’t want the armband? I’d understand if he never captained again after the incident, but he’s had the armband since that moment
— Met. (@AFCMet) February 19, 2022
Imagine the panic that Eddie had when Xhaka wouldn’t take it. “Oh god, am I the captain now?
— Poorly Drawn Arsenal (@cantdrawarsenal) February 19, 2022
Laughing at Xhaka refusing to take the armband. Man said he doesn’t want to deal with that nonsense again. I respect it.
— Zito (@_Zeets) February 19, 2022
Xhaka refusing to take the armband perfectly sums up Arsenal’s biggest problem: since Vieira left, we’ve never had a proper captain/leader.
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) February 19, 2022
Granit Xhaka was once Arsenal’s captain but was stripped off the honour in 2019 when the midfielder stormed off the pitch when being substituted and gestured to home fans to boo even louder at his discretion.
As a result, Xhaka was replaced as club captain by none other than Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who hardly did much better in the role and was also stripped of his captaincy for poor behaviour off the pitch, before eventually leaving the club for Barcelona in January.
Xhaka had captained the side in the first two games of this season’s Premier League but going by Saturday’s reaction to the armband, it would seem as though the midfielder is no longer interested in being a leader in the Arsenal dressing room.
