Holding reveals Emery conducted poll to answer key Arsenal question

Arsenal defender Rob Holding has revealed that boss Unai Emery recently conducted a poll to decide who should be the club’s captain going forward.

Emery introduced a pool of five skippers following his appointment last summer but saw his original choices decimated by the summer departures of Laurent Koscielny, Petr Cech and Aaron Ramsey.

Under-fire midfielder Granit Xhaka has so far worn the armband in the Premier League this term but is yet to convince in the role and was jeered by his own fans during the weekend win over Aston Villa, while the peripheral Mesut Ozil is the only other member of the initial five still at the club.

“He likes his five captains. We all did a vote the other week so we’ll see what happens and see who gets named,” Holding said.

“It was just write names down and then give them to the manager and he will go through them obviously with his input and we’ll see what happens. I have no idea [when an announcement will be made], but there is a lot of leaders in that team who are helping each other out and pushing each other on.

“Now that we’ve got these five captains that the manager has brought in it’s spreading the leadership group rather than having one person to dictate it. You’re getting more input, it’s generating a good environment.”

Arsenal, who will face Liverpool in the fourth round of the EFL Cup after seeing off Nottingham Forest on Tuesday night, face Manchester United in the Premier League on Monday evening.

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