A video circulated online earlier this week of Adams claiming Arsenal “are not going to win the league with Ødegaard as captain”, suggesting Declan Rice should be installed as skipper heading into the new season.
However, in his first pre-match press conference of the new Premier League campaign, Arteta revealed the players were offered the chance to revamp the squad’s leadership group, but the Norwegian overwhelmingly came out on top in a group vote.
"My opinion is clear, and it is not just my opinion, it is all the staff and especially the players," said Arteta ahead of the curtain-raising trip to Manchester United on Sunday.
"I asked them to vote for the captain, and I got the results yesterday.
“By a mile, by 100 miles, everybody chose the same person, which is Martin Ødegaard. Which is the most clear sign you can have is how they feel about who has to be their captain, to defend, improve and win the matches we want to win. I think there is no question about that."
Ødegaard, who joined Arsenal on a permanent basis in the summer of 2021 following a successful loan spell throughout the campaign prior, has been Arteta’s eyes and ears on the pitch and continues to set the standards both in the dressing room and during matches.
Arteta added: “We can talk about leadership and the kind of leaders, we can be here for hours.
"At the end what matters most is how these guys feel about who needs to lead them, how they feel comfortable, who is going to push them, who is going to give them support when it is happening and basically who do you want to represent the club and the team when we go out there and face any opposition? That’s the key.”
The Arsenal boss also vocalised his thoughts on another season of rule changes, implying the enforcement of such rules tends to dissipate quickly after the referee’s governing body, the PGMOL, looked to clamp down on time-wasting last season, which saw Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard sent off for kicking the ball away in the first few games of the 2024/25 campaign.
Asked how he plans on protecting his players from a similar fate to that of Rice and Trossard, he said: “It was very particular, and they only lasted for a few weeks, and we were really punished for those few weeks. But hopefully it won’t happen.
“Again, I think they have been very clear. We have had good meetings with the referees when they came here and in the managers’ meeting as well.
“I think it is very clear what to expect, and I wish everybody the best. I think we are going to need the best of us all to have the best Premier League campaign ever, which I think is going to happen, and hopefully we are going to come out on top of that.”
Arsenal kick off their Premier League campaign when they travel to Old Trafford to face old rivals Manchester United on Sunday (4.30pm).