THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON — William Gallas is back in the Arsenal lineup after losing his spot following his revelations of internal team unrest but has lost the captaincy to Cesc Fabregas.
Manager Arsene Wenger announced the changes on Monday ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League game against Dynamo Kyiv but refused to elaborate on why he had made them.
"I don’t think I have specially to explain why I make the decisions," the Arsenal manager said.
Gallas was stripped of the team captaincy and dropped for Saturday’s 3-0 loss to Manchester City after he told The Associated Press in an interview last week about arguments among players during recent matches.
The French defender returns for Arsenal’s second meeting with the Ukrainian club, having scored Arsenal’s 88th-minute equalizer in a 1-1 draw in Kyiv on Sept. 17.
Wenger said Gallas would return to the starting lineup but that 21-year-old Spanish midfielder Fabregas will be captain from now on.
"It is a great honour for me to captain one of the biggest clubs in the world," Fabregas said. "It is a proud moment. I know it’s a big responsibility but together with my team-mates, I know we have the spirit and commitment to get back to winning ways and fulfil our potential."
Wenger declined to say why he had taken the captaincy away from the 31-year-old Gallas.
"William is a player that I rate and a man that I rate as well. I have a big respect for him. He was working as a captain and was in a very difficult media environment. He was under big pressure from the press and at some stage you do not want that (outside) pressure to affect him and the team.
"He’s a player who’s committed to the club. I think he will be stronger as a player because he took all the problems of the team to his heart."
Asked why he had given the captaincy to Fabregas, Wenger again declined to give a reason.
"I believe that for me the captain is the voice of the club towards the outside and is one of the leaders of the team," he said. "But I don’t believe in one providential man in the dressing room who sorts out all the problems. A successful team is a shared leadership inside the dressing room and he will be one of the leaders but not the only one."
The loss to Man City was Arsenal’s fifth in the Premier League, two more than last season when the Gunners finished third. They are in fifth place, 10 points behind Chelsea and Liverpool.
"When you don’t win nobody jumps over the roof with frustration," Wenger said. "It kicks in when the team doesn’t win. But it’s a good opportunity for us to show the team has strengths and ability. You know how the media works — you go from catastrophe to fantastic but real life is in between.
"The team is frustrated but it’s not all doom and gloom. We have a strong belief in our ability and we have a good opportunity to show that we care about the club and we believe in our strengths and we can qualify tomorrow."
After Tuesday’s game, Arsenal has to concentrate on a Premier League showdown with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge knowing that another defeat would leave the club 13 points behind. A victory would trim the difference to seven.
"We can qualify tomorrow, and that is what we want to do. From then on, we have a massive game on Sunday against Chelsea," Wenger said. "We know for us to have a chance in the championship, we have to beat all the direct opponents. If we can do that, then we still have a good chance."