What a difference six months makes in football, as Arsenal defender Kieran Tierney can attest to.
At the turn of the year, the Scotland international was the undisputed choice at left-back for the Gunners after winning his place back from Nuno Tavares, whose form had dipped following a bright start, but it's safe to say he's no longer an automatic starter under Mikel Arteta now that Oleksandr Zinchenko has joined the club.
That's not to say Tierney isn't still an important part of the Arsenal manager's plans as he's been ever-present so far this season - albeit with three substitute appearances - as he is eased back into action following knee surgery that curtailed his 2021/22 campaign earlier than expected.
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Although, it would appear that the 25-year-old has dropped down the pecking order regarding the Arsenal captaincy. This scenario appeared unthinkable after the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg defeat at the hands of Liverpool towards the end of January.
On that night when Alexandre Lacazette was replaced, the captain's armband eventually made its way over to Tierney, and this seemed to indicate that he was high in Arteta's thinking ahead of making a decision over who would be the next permanent Gunners skipper.
In addition, when the Scot took the armband instead of Granit Xhaka during Arsenal's win over Brentford in February, it was revealed that he was effectively the vice-captain: "Because Kieran (Tierney) was the next in line, that's why," Arteta told reporters as the decision caused quite a fuss at the time.
However, With Tierney missing the final two months last season after undergoing knee surgery, he didn't get a chance to captain the side when Lacazette lost his place in the team. That allowed Martin Odegaard - who is also the captain of the Norway national team - to skipper the side during the final eight games.
As a result, it was no surprise that a week before the start of the 2022/23 season. The attacking midfielder was announced as Arsenal's permanent captain, and it was revealed after the win over Leicester City that he had been joined by £45m summer signing Gabriel Jesus and Xhaka as part of a three-man leadership group named by Arteta.
Interestingly, this was on show at the Vitality Stadium as all three wore the armband at one stage against Bournemouth. Starting with Odegaard, it was then passed to Xhaka after going off in the 74th minute and then onto Jesus when Albert Sambi Lokonga replaced the Switzerland international with two minutes left on the clock.
The sight of the Brazilian wearing Arsenal captain's armband instead of Tierney, in particular, certainly surprised supporters @H0sssssss, @diideehutami, @TheRealAdemola and @MrJoyoung on Twitter, with the latter going as far to suggest the image was 'bizarre'.
To that point, Tierney was once a popular choice amongst many Gunners fans to be captain, having been earmarked for Arteta's main role in the future. The decisions over the past fortnight effectively 'confirm' there has been somewhat of a u-turn on the Scot for the time being, at least.
Perhaps a reason for this is to allow Tierney to fully focus on regaining his fitness, especially as his injury record ever since joining the club from Celtic in the summer of 2019 has meant he's been unavailable for selection more often than that not.
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