Wenger: Gallas is captain material

WILLIAM GALLAS has “all the ingredients” to captain Arsenal, according to manager Arsene Wenger.

The defender was handed the armband for Wednesday night’s 1-0 defeat by Salzburg in the final match of the Gunners’ pre-season trip to Austria.

Wenger maintains there is “no problem” between him and Gallas, who turns 30 next month, despite the harsh criticism of the club from the former Chelsea man over the summer.

Gallas had claimed “several players are questioning the club’s future” following the departure of Thierry Henry and that he was “not at Arsenal to play for third place”.

The Gunners boss, however, shrugged off suggestions there was any rift with the World Cup finalist and indicated Gallas was one of the leading contenders to take over from Henry as skipper.

“William has all the ingredients to be captain – it is him or players like Gilberto, Kolo Toure” said Wenger.

“He has got a lot of experience. At the back is the best position to captain the team because you are in a position where you see all the problems on the pitch – that is a better position than for a centre-forward or wide player.”

Wenger, though, maintains the decision on who will lead his side out at Emirates Stadium for the opening game of the new Premier League campaign against Fulham on August 12 is not high on his current agenda.

Despite the loss at Bulls Arena, Wenger was content enough with the performance of what was a strong side. New signing Eduardo da Silva made his first start, and could have put the game beyond the hosts before Vladimir Janocko eventually hit a late winner.

“He has worked very hard and has shown he has top quality,” said Wenger of the Brazilian-born Croatian striker. “He could have scored four.”

Wenger added: “Apart from the result, everything else was okay. We faced a team who played very deep and defensive, which is a situation we face in our league. We created some chances and things we had worked on went well.”

The Arsenal boss, meanwhile, revealed the departure of veteran midfielder Freddie Ljungberg to West Ham earlier this week did “not necessarily” mean he would be making another move in the transfer market.