Arsenal’s ‘future captain’ is destined to take over No. 8 shirt from Odegaard

After years of building their team, Arsenal currently field one of, if not the best, team in the Premier League.

Some may argue that Liverpool or Manchester City have a stronger starting line-up, but when it comes to true quality, the Gunners are by far the best.

For example, they are currently top of the table but without club captain Martin Odegaard. He looked great in the few games he played before his MCL injury.

Moreover, Mikel Arteta already has a player in today’s squad who he feels is destined to one day take the Norwegian’s armband and jersey number.

Arsenal’s best number 8

Arsenal are such a huge club that over the years there have been some truly great players to play in the famous red and white, and there have been some exceptional players to wear the number 8 shirt.

Every fan has a different top three players with this number, but in this case, number three goes to Aaron Ramsey, who isn’t exactly a legend, but is definitely a cult hero.

The Wales international wore the shirt from the 16/17 to 18/19 seasons, and although he did not win the league during his time in North London, he won the FA Cup three times.

Furthermore, he scored the winning goals against Hull City and Chelsea, so the 2010s would have been much darker for the Gunners without him.

Next up is Freddie Ljungberg, a true legend who even served as the club’s interim manager in 2019.

The Swedish superstar wore the number from season 98/99 to season 06/07, during which time he made 328 appearances, scored 72 goals and provided 40 assists, winning two league titles, three FA Cups and two Player of the Year awards with the club.

Finally, when it comes to the most iconic number eight in the Gunners’ illustrious history, it’s impossible to ignore Arsenal himself, Ian Wright.

The legendary centre-forward wore the shirt for most of his time at Highbury and wore it in 1997 when he broke Cliff Bastin’s goalscoring record, which was later broken again by a French player.

For now, that’s the top three, but if Odegaard leads Arsenal to the title this season, there’s a good chance Odegaard will replace Ramsey, and one of his team-mates could snatch No. 8 from him in a few years.

Arsenal’s future No. 8

There are several options for who could take over the number eight shirt from Odegaard in the current Arsenal squad in the future, from Ethan Nwaneri to Max Daumann.

However, the former is likely to inherit Ten, and the latter could be the perfect long-term successor to Bukayo Saka.

Therefore, it seems much more likely that the Norwegian’s shirt will land on Miles Lewis-Skelly.

After all, he has played extremely well as a left-back over the past year or so, but we all know very well that the most played position in the academy, and the position he is expected to move to one day, is central midfield.

And as if anyone needed more convincing of his ability to change a game from midfield, he did just that against Atletico Madrid.

Just seven minutes after Gabriel Magalhães scored the opening goal, the 19-year-old monster picked up the ball in the center of the park, raced past half of the Atleti team, and fed Gabriel Martinelli with the perfect pass to slot the ball into the back of the goal.

On top of that, he also proved to be much tougher and more willing to throw his weight around than people would expect from a player his age.

This fearlessness and incredible self-confidence made him an important part of this team early on in his career and is why Arsenal club officials are already calling him their ‘future captain’.

These traits have also made him a big fan of England manager Thomas Tuchel, and with him winning six senior caps with the Three Lions, there is a good chance he could be on the plane for next year’s World Cup.

After all, although still at an incredibly early stage in his career, it’s clear that Lewis-Skelly is a future midfielder, and if he continues to perform like this, it feels inevitable that he will become Arsenal’s next number eight.