Why Granit Xhaka seemingly turned down the captain’s armband in Arsenal’s win over Brentford

Arsenal’s 2-1 win over Brentford was seemingly somewhat tainted by an incident late in the second half revolving around the captains armband.

The Gunners were 2-0 up and cruising when Alexandre Lacazette, the club captain since the departure of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, was substituted for Eddie Nketiah.

Lacazette handed the youngster the armband to pass on, which he attempted to give to Xhaka. Xhaka, however, seemingly refused it on two occasions, and was subsequently seen shouting at the Arsenal bench.

Granit Xhaka turns his nose up at the Arsenal armband ©️🤔 pic.twitter.com/NiGt73wx9C

— DAZN Canada (@DAZN_CA) February 19, 2022

However, it has since been cleared up as a misunderstanding by football.LDN writer Kaya Kaynak, who took to Twitter to reveal:

‘Laca was trying to give the armband to Tierney who was preparing to take a throw but couldn’t hear Laca’s shout. Laca therefore gave it to Eddie to give to KT, but EN was told to stay in the CF position by Arteta.’

‘Nketiah then tried to give it to Xhaka to give to Tierney at that point but the throw-in was about to be taken so GX told him to just hold on to it. Not a case of Xhaka refusing the responsibility at all & a bit of a stretch to say it’s a lack of commitment or anything like that.’

Top four race hotting up

The win for the Gunners was overshadowed by the fantastic game later in the day, which saw Tottenham pick up three valuable points away to Manchester City courtesy of a 3-2 win over Pep Guardiola’s side.

And it means that Arsenal and Spurs are one and four points behind fourth-placed Manchester United, with the Red Devils having played two more games than both London sides.

It makes their clash with Leeds United on Sunday afternoon even more important, and a defeat could see them fall away from the race for the top 4.

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With 13 games still to play, the race is hotting up.

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Premier League table

#	Team	MP	D	P
1	Manchester City	25	47	63
2	Liverpool FC	24	42	54
3	Chelsea FC	24	30	47
4	Manchester United	25	8	43
5	West Ham United	25	11	41
6	Arsenal FC	22	9	39
7	Wolverhampton Wanderers	23	4	37
8	Tottenham Hotspur	22	-1	36
9	Brighton & Hove Albion	24	0	33
10	Southampton FC	24	-7	29
11	Leicester City	22	-5	27
12	Aston Villa	23	-5	27
13	Crystal Palace	24	-3	26
14	Brentford FC	25	-14	24
15	Leeds United	23	-19	23
16	Everton FC	22	-10	22
17	Newcastle United	23	-19	21
18	Norwich City	24	-36	17
19	Watford FC	23	-20	15
20	Burnley FC	21	-12	14

Player	Team	Goals
Salah, Mohamed	Liverpool FC	17
Jota, Diogo	Liverpool FC	12
Sterling, Raheem	Manchester City	10
Son, Heung Min	Tottenham Hotspur	9
Dennis, Emmanuel	Watford FC	9
Ronaldo, Cristiano	Manchester United	9
Smith-Rowe, Emile	Arsenal FC	9
Vardy, Jamie	Leicester City	9
Mane, Sadio	Liverpool FC	9
Bowen, Jarrod	West Ham United	8
Antonio, Michail	West Ham United	8
Fernandes, Bruno	Manchester United	8
Mahrez, Riyad	Manchester City	8
Maupay, Neal	Brighton & Hove Albion	8
Raphinha	Leeds United	8
Mount, Mason	Chelsea FC	7
Saka, Bukayo	Arsenal FC	7
Gallagher, Conor	Crystal Palace	7
De Bruyne, Kevin	Manchester City	7
Kane, Harry	Tottenham Hotspur	7

Player	Team	Red Cards	Yellow Cards
Dennis, Emmanuel	Watford FC	0	7
Neves, Ruben	Wolverhampton Wanderers	0	8
Salisu, Mohammed	Southampton FC	0	7
Fernandes, Bruno	Manchester United	0	7
Rice, Declan	West Ham United	0	7
Mctominay, Scott	Manchester United	0	7
Cash, Matty	Aston Villa	0	7
Brownhill, Josh	Burnley FC	0	7
Maguire, Harry	Manchester United	0	6
Gallagher, Conor	Crystal Palace	0	6
Pogba, Paul	Manchester United	1	5
McGinn, John	Aston Villa	0	6
Canos, Sergi	Brentford FC	0	6
Alonso, Marcos	Chelsea FC	0	6
Norgaard, Christian	Brentford FC	0	6
Westwood, Ashley	Burnley FC	0	6
Moreno, Rodrigo	Leeds United	0	6
Tarkowski, James	Burnley FC	0	6
Laporte, Aymeric	Manchester City	1	5
Shelvey, Jonjo	Newcastle United	0	5

Player	Team	Assists
Alexander-Arnold, Trent	Liverpool FC	10
Salah, Mohamed	Liverpool FC	9
Bowen, Jarrod	West Ham United	8
Pogba, Paul	Manchester United	8
Robertson, Andy	Liverpool FC	8
Jesus, Gabriel	Manchester City	7
Mount, Mason	Chelsea FC	6
Cancelo, Joao	Manchester City	6
Son, Heung Min	Tottenham Hotspur	5
Dennis, Emmanuel	Watford FC	5
Antonio, Michail	West Ham United	5
Fernandes, Bruno	Manchester United	5
James, Reece	Chelsea FC	5
Lacazette, Alexandre	Arsenal FC	5
Kovacic, Mateo	Chelsea FC	5
Barnes, Harvey	Leicester City	5
Redmond, Nathan	Southampton FC	5
Mahrez, Riyad	Manchester City	4
Saka, Bukayo	Arsenal FC	4
Ward Prowse, James	Southampton FC	4