Cursed position? Arsenal captains at rivals and booed by their own fans

During this week, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was relieved of his captaincy. The reason? He went to get a tattoo instead of a pre-match training session. But he’s certainly not the first Arsenal captain to misbehave.

Robin van Persie

After his transfer from Feyenoord in 2001, he became a real mainstay of the Gunners. He scored 132 goals in his 11 years in the jersey, but managed to damage his reputation with Arsenal fans considerably.

One of the top goalscorers in Premier League history, he got the nod from Manchester United in 2012. He justified his departure by saying he wanted to win trophies.

Van Persie continued his great form from his last season at Arsenal, when he became the league’s top scorer and shot Manchester United to their last title to date with his 26 goals.

Granit Xhaka

The hot-blooded Swiss with Albanian roots is still a member of the London club, but not the captain.

He lost his captain’s armband in 2019 when he slowly walked off the pitch in a Premier League match in an unfavourable condition. The fans booed him after the poor performance, however, a frustrated Xhaka still provoked the fans with gestures and took off his jersey.

Xhaka, however, stayed at the club and calmed down quite a bit and hasn’t shown such an emotional breakdown since. Maybe that will win at least a few fans back.

William Gallas

He came to Arsenal in exchange for Ashley Cole, who was moving to rivals Chelsea, where Gallas had just previously been.

Chelsea accused him of threatening the management. He reportedly wanted to start scoring his own goals if he wasn’t released.

The French stopper wore a very unusual number for a stopper at Arsenal. He inherited the number 10 from the legendary Bergkamp, but it cannot be said that the number 10 made as good a reputation at Arsenal.

He lost his captain’s armband after publicly criticising teammates in a post-match interview.

In 2010, he failed to agree a new contract with Arsenal management and headed to rivals Tottenham Hotspur for a change.

Source: Transfermarkt