Arsenal ready to make Wilshere captain

Arsenal are ready to make Jack Wilshere their youngest ever starting captain when he leads out the Gunners against Brighton and Hove Albion in the FA Cup this weekend. Club captain Thomas Vermaelen will be missing from action.

Against West Ham in the 5-1 victory, Thomas Vermaelen handed Wilshere the armband after the Belgian was substituted. Now it is understood that Arsene Wenger will make Wilshere the Gunners' youngest ever starting captain, beating Tony Adams' previous record by 58 days.


"I haven't decided that yet, but Jack was an interesting choice," Wenger said. "Honestly, Vermaelen made that choice [on Wednesday] and I let him make it. It is always interesting to see when Vermaelen is out who he feels spontaneously should be the captain. I did not want to stop him. It is interesting because the players know on the pitch.


"He is naturally a guy who is not scared of anything on the football pitch and that is usually the sign of a leader. He wants to win and shows you that. Of course, he will be one of the leaders of this club - in fact he already is on the pitch. A leader is somebody who does everything on the pitch to help his team win. And he does that."