It was a shame that Wolves couldn’t at least muster a draw against West Ham yesterday, but if I’m going to look at the up side, it means a bit more daylight between us and them, with us five points clear of Wolves with two games in hand. West Ham knocked us out of fifth but we have three games in hand over them so will have three opportunities to claw back some points, plus they have to play Liverpool next weekend, as well as Tottenham, Chelski, us and City in their remaining games, which is a real tough run if they’re going to finish in that top four slot. No, the ones I’m still looking at are the Scum, who have by far the easiest run and have Man United, West Ham and Liverpool in their remaining tough fixtures. They play Burnley at home and Norwich away in their two final games of the season and there’s no way they won’t pick up maximum points, so I do think we will need to be clear of them with a few games to go.

I’ve spent the whole weekend working our permutations and ‘if this then what’s! But I guess that is what happens when your team doesn’t play for the whole weekend. It means you have to peer over in to other people’s back gardens and start to look at what they are doing. If we’re going to focus on ourselves though, this weekend feels like it’s been focused on a few Gooners having some online discord in relation to Arsenal’s next captain. Who will Arteta choose? And does it really matter?

Unai Emery was widely mocked with his ‘five captains’ approach but the principle was grounded in common sense. The role of a captain these days feels a lot more ceremonial than anything else, albeit the captain is the guy who is called over when a ref wants to have a word about something. I’ve seen a few suggest Ramsdale as captain and certainly for me he should be up there. Arteta has spoken of a ‘Leadership Group’ and if you’re going to have that – the evolution of Unai’s ‘five captains’ – then you probably do put Ramsdale in that collective. Anything happening in the defensive third of the pitch and Ramsdale should be there, barking and hollering at everyone and anyone who is around. He’ll cajole, hassle, harry and point things out from his vantage point of having all of the play in front of him. And the energy he gives off can only be positive for me. But if you’re going to have him as captain then you probably do need other ‘captains’ in the team, because if a discussion is needed to be had between player, referee and captain in the final third, you don’t want the ‘keeper to be running the length of the pitch to have a word. So whilst I could get behind him as captain, it feels like you probably need another guy in there further up the pitch.

Maybe that is Odegaard? He’s captain of Norway, he’s fast becoming the fulcrum of this Arsenal team and his vision and creativity makes him somebody that most of the other players are clearly looking to in the middle of the park. He is more of a ‘leader by example’ rather than a barker like Ramsdale would be, but we’ve had examples of that working in the past; most notably when Fabregas was handed the Arsenal captaincy at such a young age. So I’d be more than happy to have Odegaard as captain when Lacazette eventually departs.

Again though, if you’re talking about a ‘Leadership Group’ then you need more than a couple of guys. Tony Adams famously said ‘you need seven’ when referring to guys who will go in to battle or a ruck if needed; seven guys on the pitch who will have your back. Do we have that? I’d put Ramsdale, White, Gabriel, Tierney, Partey, Xhaka, Odegaard and Lacazette in that collective. You could probably also chuck Bob Holding in their too. That’s nine and so ticks the Tony Adams mantra, but are they all part of the ‘Leadership Group’? Maybe not all of them, but I’d have no trouble with Gabriel, Tierney, Xhaka all being classed as part of that collective. That gives you your ‘five captains’ and I think it shows that we have a group that has forged who will look out for each other and go to bat for each other. When was the last time we could say that about the Arsenal squad? It’s heartening to see and it is why so many Arsenal fans are feeling their positive voice. As Arteta has already explained a few times we have won nothing yet, but the signs there are positive.

I’m going to leave it there for another day, but before I go, a word for the spineless officials at FIFA for their stance on Russia. They have been given a stand like the rest of the world is slowly doing against Russia and its invasion of Ukraine, but once again they have shown what a disaster of a footballing body they are. Telling Russia to change their name to the ‘Federation of United Russia’ or some other such nonsense as they have done, as well as telling them not to compete under the Russian flag or play the Russian national anthem, is an appalling misjudgement of global sentiment and if FIFA had any decency they would have told Russia that it will be removed from competing for Qatar 2022 as a result of their actions. It is a disgrace that we have such an incompetent governing body but, as we have all seen in recent years, FIFA is as corrupt as it comes and never got the complete refresh it needed when Blatter was removed all those years ago.

Back tomorrow with more Arsenal thoughts. Catch you all then.