Mohamed Elneny says Arsenal players agreed with manager Mikel Arteta's decision to strip Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of the captaincy.
In the Gunners dressing room, that was the moment when Arteta stamped his authority on the job – because it made the players “scared” to cross him. Arsenal head for a reunion with Aubameyang in Sunday's high-noon shoot-out with Chelsea knowing the sub-plot will overshadow their title challenge.
The Gunners tore up their skipper's £350,000-a-week contract last January, allowing him to join Barcelona, but the Gabon striker's spell at the Nou Camp was short-lived and he returned to English football with a deadline-day move to Stamford Bridge.
But Aubameyang, 33, has managed only one Premier League goal for the Blues so far, and turfing him off the wage bill at the Emirates may yet prove to be Arteta's most inspired piece of business.
In the documentary All Or Nothing: Arsenal, which laid bare the discord between the pair as Arteta compiled his infamous dossier of Aubameyang's timekeeping misdemeanours, Elneny conceded his manager showed “balls” to take such a hard-line stance.
Asked if that was the moment where Arteta really established his authority, Elneny agreed: “One hundred per cent. Now everyone looked at themselves because Mikel did that to the captain of the team, so what is he going to do with another player?
“This showed that now we can’t play around, now we have to be calm with the team and the way the team is going we have to stick with the team, not do something different.
How key to Arsenal's success was stripping Aubameyang of the captaincy last season? Have your say here
“We agree with what Mikel decided because he is our boss and we just have to agree what his vision is for us. I think it unified us because now everyone was scared! Everyone is scared with their position because this happened to Aubameyang.
“We don’t allow big egos. This is the dressing room we have now. Everyone loves each other and everyone works for each other. This is what actually makes our squad really strong, because we don’t have egos in the team.
“Of course if anyone is not the captain of the team, and does a small mistake, they are going to have the same problem, and no one needs that problem.”
Arteta has been careful not to fan the flames of controversy with Aubameyang lying in wait, and Elneny agrees he is just another player who has moved on.
“Now we just focus on ourselves,” said the Egyptian midfield anchorman. “Aubameyang was one of our players and now he decided to go to a different team. We must focus on ourselves and look to win the game.
“We know what we are going there to do, because now we are looking for the title. Of course we are going to push and we are going to give everything to win the game.”
New skipper Martin Odegaard has brought a quiet authority to the role, and Elneny added: “We love Martin so much. Everyone is just happy for him to be our captain. We support him and we make the job easy for him. He is really a good player on the pitch and outside he is very important for us.”
