Paul Merson urges Emery to make David Luiz new Arsenal captain

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Arsenal squeezed past Aston Villa with a 3-2 win on Sunday.

Pundit Paul Merson has told Sky Sports that he wants David Luiz to become Arsenal’s new captain – but thinks Unai Emery ‘hasn’t got a clue’ about his leadership plan.

The Gunners hosted Aston Villa on Sunday afternoon, and it wasn’t exactly going to plan as John McGinn put Villa in front before Ainsley Maitland-Niles was sent off.

Nicolas Pepe levelled the game from the penalty spot, and whilst Wesley put Villa back in front, Arsenal grabbed the win through Calum Chambers and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

It was far from convincing from Arsenal, and whilst they managed to win with 10 men, there are issues for boss Emery to solve in the coming weeks.

Arsenal are giving up far too many shots, and once again look short of leadership having recently thrown away a 2-0 lead at Watford too.

Captain Granit Xhaka has been slammed in recent weeks, and Emery will have five ‘captains’ in his side, but he’s yet to name them with Petr Cech, Laurent Koscielny and Aaron Ramsey – three of the five captains last year – gone.

Now, Merson has suggested that Emery ‘hasn’t got a clue’ what his best team is or who his leaders are, admitted he’s really worried by the Spaniard’s stance on leadership.

Merson has urged Emery to make defender Luiz – a recent signing on a huge £125,000-a-week (Spotrac) – the new Arsenal captain, which would be a big change to the leadership structure at Arsenal, or even appoint Aubameyang instead.

“The worrying thing for me is I heard the manager say he’s going to have five captains, which tells me he has no idea what his team is,” said Merson. “Unai Emery’s been there a year-and-a-half, he’s got to have five captains because he doesn’t have a clue what his best team is. He hasn’t got a clue. The good teams are the ones who play virtually the same team every week, but with Arsenal you don’t know who it’ll be from week to week.”

“David Luiz has got to be captain, he’s a serial winner. People have a go at him because one week he’ll be a 2/10 and the next a 9/10, but he’s going to play every week. I’m not the greatest lover of a forward being the captain, but [Pierre-Emerick] Aubameyang’s another one. Those front three should pick themselves straight away and you go from there – they’ll play every week, if they’re fit,” he added.