Should Martin Odegaard walk out at Craven Cottage against Fulham on Sunday donning our captain’s armband as usual, it will be a momentous occasion for our skipper.
That’s because it’ll be the 100th time he has captained us in competitive action, on what would be his 163rd appearance in red and white - a remarkable feat for a player who is still only 25 years old.
The first time was at Southampton in March 2022 and he has held it ever since. "I had a short conversation with Mikel just before the game - that was it basically!” he has previously reflected.
"It was a big honour. To get that trust from the manager and the whole club after being here for just one year was huge, so it made me feel good. I was happy and proud about it. I stepped in and tried to do as well as possible.”
And Martin has done much better than that, as he has created history whilst holding the captaincy.
Our friends at Opta have calculated the Norwegian has guided us to victory on 66 of the 99 occasions he has led the team out, and that win percentage of 66.7% is the highest any Arsenal captain who has skipped us 20 or more times has managed since our famous title-winning campaign of 1988/89.
That puts him ahead of legendary leaders such as Tony Adams, Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry, and also Mikel Arteta who sits a respectable fourth on the list, while also boasting the best win percentage of any Gunners manager.
Martin will become only the fifth player to captain us in a century of matches since 1989, with Adams, Vieira, Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny also achieving the feat:
Arsenal captains' win % since 1988/89 (min 20 games)
**Player**
P
**W**
Win %
Martin Odegaard
99
66
66.7%
Alexandre Lacazette
32
21
65.6%
Petr Cech
25
16
64.0%
Mikel Arteta
57
36
63.2%
Per Mertesacker
102
63
61.8%
Kolo Toure
31
19
61.3%
Patrick Vieira
170
102
60.0%
Cesc Fabregas
81
48
59.3%
Manuel Almunia
24
14
58.3%
Thierry Henry
69
38
55.1%
Laurent Koscielny
108
59
54.6%
William Gallas
57
31
54.4%
Tony Adams
528
277
52.5%
Nigel Winterburn
33
17
51.5%
Robin van Persie
61
31
50.8%
Granit Xhaka
28
14
50.0%
Gilberto Silva
31
15
48.4%
Martin Keown
29
14
48.3%
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
76
35
46.1%
Steve Bould
37
16
43.2%
Thomas Vermaelen
49
21
42.9%
Lee Dixon
49
20
40.8%
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