Arsenal head coach Unai Emery has named defender Laurent Koscielny as his main captain, with Mesut Ozil listed as one of four vice-captains.
Koscielny, currently out with an ankle injury, captained the side in place of Per Mertesacker last season.
Mertesacker retired from playing at the end of the campaign, assuming the role of Arsenal’s academy manager.
Ahead of Emery’s Premier League bow at home to Manchester City on Sunday, live on Sky Sports, the Spaniard has also named four vice-captains; Ozil , Petr Cech, Aaron Ramsey, and Granit Xhaka – one of whom will take the armband in Koscielny’s absence.
On the appointments, Emery said: “The captain of this group is Laurent Koscielny, who is injured at the moment. After Laurent, our other captains are Petr Cech, Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil, and Granit Xhaka.
“I want leaders in the team – every player at every time to have the capacity to show leadership, but these are the five players who have the possibility to be captain.”
Arsenal captain Laurent Koscielny had been ruled out for six months after undergoing surgery on his ankle, ending his chances of playing in the 2018 World Cup this summer with France.
The 32-year-old ruptured his Achilles tendon early in Arsenal’s Europa League semi-final second leg defeat by Atletico Madrid last week, with France Football manager Didier Deschamps already announcing that he did not expect to have the defender available in Russia next month.
But former coach Arsene Wenger had revealed in his penultimate pre-match press conference on Tuesday that the Frenchman has undergone surgery on the injury and will be lucky to play again this year, meaning he will miss the first half of the 2018/19 Premier League season that left Arsenal extremely light on both defensive options and natural leaders.
“He is of course devastated because he has had surgery,” said Wenger. “He will be out for six months. You will not see him before the beginning of December at best.”
He added: “We always try to be positive but overall you can only try to support people when they suffer because they suffer of course from a situation like this. It is a bit surprising because when people have an inflamed tendon they don’t tend to rupture, so in this case it is surprising.”
France had also confirmed that Laurent Koscielny will miss the World Cup this summer because of the suspected ruptured Achilles he suffered during Arsenal’s Europa League defeat to Atletico Madrid.
The French Football Federation confirmed on Friday evening that the centre-back would not be able to play in Russia.
“It’s a very big blow for the France team,” coach Didier Deschamps said.
Koscielny, who has 51 caps, had already announced he planned to retire from international football after the World Cup.
Deschamps added: “I am really very sad for Laurent, because this World Cup was also a very important moment for him in his career and I wish him a lot of strength in his comeback, because I’m sure he still has some great things to come.”
Koscienly does still have a future at Arsenal.He remains under contract until 2020 and will come back into contention under a new manager in 2018-19.