Arsenal drew 2-2 with Crystal Palace on Sunday afternoon.
Arsenal boss Unai Emery has told Football.London that he will speak to Granit Xhaka and the club before deciding whether to take the armband off him.
The Gunners took on Crystal Palace at home on Sunday afternoon, and were hoping to use Thursday’s dramatic win over Vitoria de Guimaraes to spark a strong performance.
Nicolas Pepe’s corner wasn’t cleared, allowing Sokratis Papastathopoulos to score, and another Pepe corner was flicked on to David Luiz to make it 2-0.
Arsenal were coasting, but Wilfried Zaha won a penalty – with VAR’s influence – which Luka Milivojevic scored from the spot, and Jordan Ayew nodded home an equaliser after the break.
Arsenal were rocked, and things turned sour as Granit Xhaka was booed off the pitch, but he appeared to hit back at the Emirates Stadium crowd in an ugly moment.
The frustration was complete when Sokratis appeared to score a winner, but VAR ruled the goal out, and Arsenal had to make do with a point.
The big talking point has been Xhaka though, as he was seemingly goading his own fans as they jeered him off the pitch – not exactly the behaviour of a captain.
A month ago, Emery made the decision to make Xhaka his new captain, and Arsenal fans made it known just how unpopular that was, branding the decision ‘disgusting’, ‘ridiculous’ and ‘terrible’.
Now, Emery has refused to guarantee that Xhaka will keep the armband after Sunday’s incident, and hinted that he could change the decision once he has spoken to Xhaka and to the club, with his refusal to back him as captain a hint that change could be coming already.
“It’s not the moment to speak about that,” said Emery. “First, I want to speak with him and the club, and we want to stay calm before we speak about that. He was not right to do that,” he added.
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