Gibbs - My favourite moment of 2016

Having spent the past 12 years at Arsenal, wearing our captain’s armband carries a special meaning for Kieran Gibbs.

The defender joined us from Wimbledon in 2004 and has gone on to represent our first team 220 times, becoming a full England international in the process.

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More recently, Gibbs captained this season’s EFL Cup side and, despite our quarter-final exit to Southampton, leading the team out at Emirates Stadium is a moment he will never forget.

“I’ve been at the club for a long time so it’s an honour to be part of the group of players who have led the team out,” he told the Arsenal Weekly podcast. “It’s something that everyone wants to do, that every kid wants to do.

“It’s a lot different on the day when you’re captain compared too when you’re not. When you’re captain you have to be first everywhere, have to make sure everyone’s ready and the first time you do that it feels so different. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I have to say I loved it.

“In the games I’ve played as captain, I’ve felt like it’s the same approach on the pitch for me, but if there’s a break in play and I feel that we need to change things tactically, then I will feel like I need to tell someone something.

“I feel that we can always improve on speaking to each other on the pitch, we all can. It’s something that we want to improve on as well because we can only benefit from communication.”