Mikel Arteta will not be hoisting the FA Cup aloft as Arsenal manager for a second time come May.
Indeed, the Gunners surprisingly crashed out of the esteemed competition at the hands of Tonda Eckert's Southampton on Saturday night, as the Championship side got the better of the complacent Premier League visitors 2-1 at St. Mary's.
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Arsenal do still hold a nine-point lead at the very top of the Premier League, so they're very much the overwhelming favourites to be crowned champions there, but their hopes of lifting a famous quadruple this season have been dashed, with a 2-0 loss in the EFL Cup final to Manchester City also stinging.
There was a real lack of leadership on the pitch on the South Coast, as Arsenal failed to keep their cool against the lower league hosts, with the captain's armband at the Emirates in recent years sticking out as a curse, rather than an honour to wear.
The curse of the captaincy at Arsenal
Arsenal have had some notable captains over the years, who have experienced unbelievable highs and depressing lows, all while donning the armband.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, for example, would put away a lethal 92 goals in total for the Gunners, across 163 games, with his red-hot form in front of goal, making him an apparent good fit for the captain's role in North London.
Aubameyang Premier League record (timeless)
Unfortunately, his clinical form would wane towards the end of his long-standing stay at the Emirates, as only four weak goals were put away from 14 games during the 2021/22 season, before disciplinary issues ultimately saw him stripped of the captaincy and then leave in 2022 for Barcelona.
Laurent Koscielny would also push for a move away from Arsenal in 2019, after being a reliable captain figure for so many years at the Emirates, while not much needs to be said on how much Robin van Persie killed his legacy, as Arsenal's leader in attack, when he jumped ship to Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United in 2012.
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That being said, looking back, the most famouis example undoubtedly has to be Granit Xhaka.
He came the butt of the jokes and indeed the scapegoat for a number of years. Like Aubameyang, he lost the armband at the Emirates after tossing it to the floor and goading supporters as they jeered him off during that famous substitution against Crystal Palace during the Unai Emery era.
He was certainly treated unfairly as Arsenal's captain as his hot-headedness often became his undoing, leading to him becoming a player for fans to latch onto and easily criticise when the going got tough, and boy did it get tough under Emery.
The Swiss enforcer has since come back to the Premier League and repaired his reputation with Sunderland, with six goal contributions collected this season in league action for the Black Cats, as Xhaka's unwanted Premier League record of four red cards at the Emirates often did the talking.
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In the here and now, however, Arteta could have a new Xhaka-style situation brewing.
Arsenal's new Xhaka
Ultimately, it was the correct decision for all parties involved when Xhaka left Arsenal behind in 2023, as he has since gone on to show there's life in his legs, away from the stifling environment of the Emirates.
Now, Martin Odegaard will be worrying that he's the latest victim of the captaincy curse. Indeed, the £30m acquisition is rapidly becoming a scapegoat for the Arsenal fanbase lately, due to his drop-off in performances this season as Arsenal's captain.
Odegaard's declining Arsenal numbers
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At one stage in his Arsenal career, the skilful Norwegian would have been viewed as a guaranteed starter week in week out, with a jaw-dropping 23 goal contributions coming his way during the 2023/24 campaign, as he consistently stood out as the Gunners' brightest attacking spark.
At the time of writing, though, the 2025/26 season has been a very painful one for the low-on-confidence 27-year-old to stomach, with only one goal and seven assists falling into his lap, while he continually battles with injury problems.
He didn't help himself with this miss against Southampton, too, as a chance he would have buried home a couple of seasons ago was snatched at.
That wasn't the only negative event for the skipper at St Mary's, with his concession of the ball in the build-up to the second only highlighting the dour mood surrounding the former Real Madrid star.
Noted as cutting a "very frustrated" figure by his national team manager Stale Solbakken, due to all his injury problems, he has become a target for a lot of abuse - like Xhaka was hurled with - with some reporters stating that "you cannot defend him" when he regularly spurns opportunities, such as the opening at St. Mary's.
He's hardly sticking out as a convincing leader, either, as Arsenal have managed to sit pretty at the top of the Premier League, even with Odegaard coming in and out of the treatment room. There is an obvious reason as to why some in the fanbase suggest Declan Rice should be skipper instead.
Odegaard-Arsenal
Becoming more of a hindrance than a help at this point, a severing of the ties might well be what's right down the line, with a sad end to his Arsenal career on the horizon, like Xhaka leaving for Leverkusen.
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