“I can’t work with him as my club’s captain and here is why”: Arsenal’s coach Mikel Arteta has revealed why he can’t work with Martin Odegaard as his club’s captain anymore, names his successor immediately

As Mikel Arteta, the manager of Arsenal, dropped to the ground in the last stages of their London derby match against Chelsea on Sunday, his response of incredulity was so obvious that it did not require any explanation.

During their two matches at Stamford Bridge, the Gunners have twice gone within a hair’s breadth of claiming victory. On the other hand, the Spaniard’s knees collapsed beneath him when he watched in amazement as Leandro Trossard was guilty of fluffing his lines late in the game. This may have been similar to their dreams of winning the championship.

After being moved to the bench in order to make room for the returning captain Martin Odegaard, the 29-year-old player had to wait until the 71st minute before Arteta called him to replace Gabriel Martinelli, who had scored the game’s first goal. They had only minutes earlier allowed an equaliser, which was a long-range shot by Pedro Neto that drew the Blues to a level playing distance.

When there were barely three minutes left, Trossard was presented with his first opportunity. The flick that was attempted by Mikel Merino was blocked by Robert Sanchez, and the rebound was given to the forward. All that was required of him was to keep his shot on aim in order to locate the winner.

Nevertheless, he rocketed it over the bar, which resulted in a collective moan from the supporters who were not on the pitch. They were completely unaware of the fact that the worst was yet to come, which was unfortunate for them.

William Saliba found himself in acres of space on the left side of the pitch deep into the five minutes of stoppage time, and the Frenchman put in a dangerous low cross. Trossard was the first player to enter the box before Kai Havertz, and the Belgian took it upon himself to direct the ball into the far corner of the box. However, the contact was not powerful enough, and the ball ended up going wide of the goal.

Havertz yelled at him in a heated manner since he had denied him a straightforward tap-in. Arteta attempted to get himself up off the ground while standing on the touchline. He was perplexed as to why his team had not been able to score.

It is possible that the goal would have been rejected by the video assistant referee (VAR) for offside if they had scored, since replays revealed that Saliba was quite close to being level with Levi Colwill. However, this will not be of much comfort to the north London team.

Although Arsenal were obliged to settle for a point, it must have seemed like a loss to them since they were unable to score and they were unable to capitalise on their advantage. Because of this, they have now gone four games without a victory for the first time in the past 19 months, which has left them nine points behind Liverpool, which is now in first place.

Last year, there was a path that was very similar. Everyone was sceptical about our ability to score, but after January, we went through a stretch of five or six games in which we were able to score five goals against our opponents,” he remarked.

“During each and every season, you will experience a difficult phase, and it is up to us to get back on track. The confidence that people have in the squad is still quite strong. The fact that we have such talented players means that we can swiftly turn things around.

He went on to say, “In general, we are working hard to win games and accomplish our goals.” All that is required is for it to click, and I am hoping that it will happen on Sunday.