Arsene Wenger: Demoting Gallas was the Right Gamble

Arsenal Coach Arsene Wenger thinks that his gable with removing William Gallas for captaincy last season has paid off and it has brought out the best from the player. In November of 2008, there was a lot of problem with Gallas and at this time his relationship with other players became bad and it attracted a lot of criticism in the media. As a result, Wenger removed him from captaincy but at the end of the season, he kept Gallas in the team. On the other hand, he sold Kolo Touré to Manchester City and he brought Thomas Vermaelen and there is a new partnership in Arsenal defense between Thomas Vermaelen and William Gallas. This partnership has provided good benefit for the club.

Wenger said, "The incident that happened with Gallas was in November of last season when he was stripped of the captaincy.

Toward the end of last season, he was very good. I expected at some point that he would want to leave because of what happened but he has found a new balance, a new mood and he has weight in this team.

It was a hard decision. You never know what kind of consequences that type of decision will have on the team or on the individual. Any decision like that can have psychological consequences that are hard to measure."

Arsenal supporters are also happy with the Gallas-Vermaelen combination this season. These two players have not suffered from any major injury in this season so far.