To those who have watched Granit Xhaka since he was a boy playing for Basel’s youth teams, the notion of leadership seems completely normal.



“He was the boss,” recalls Michael Martin, a football writer who followed the club and the Swiss national team for many years. “He was loud, aggressive, a natural born leader.”



Fast forward to the Emirates, and the week earmarked to finally bring clarity to Unai Emery’s decisions on leadership for this season.



The dissonant noise that accompanied Xhaka’s substitution against Aston Villa on Sunday, a mash-up of ironic cheers and disappointed jeers, sharpened the focus on the player’s suitability to be Arsenal captain.



Is it a sensible choice to pick a skipper the supporters don’t believe in? Is it logical to hand the armband to a player whose role in the team is, let’s just say, easily skewed by the kind of high-profile errors even he struggles to...