Where to watch Arsenal vs. Manchester United: Live stream, TV channel, odds, kickoff time, news

Imagine an Arsenal captain raising one of the biggest trophies in the sport. Who do you picture? For many, it will be those who have led the club in the greatest moments of all: Patrick Vieira with the ticker type of Highbury at the end of the Invincibles season, a yellow-shirted Tony Adams on that remarkable Anfield night 36 years ago. For those of you of a certain vintage, it might be Frank McLintock, fresh from rallying the troops at Wembley to win the double in 1971, held aloft by his teammates.

These are leaders who fit into the stereotypical idea of leadership in English football. They stuck their body on the line, they bent the rules, and they covered every blade of grass in pursuit of victory. They were captains, leaders, legends. Such players often seem hard to find in a sport that has long since come to prize technical qualities over the intangibles. The curious thing is Arsenal have at least one, a man who has, in true Adams fashion, gone from the academy to lifting silverware, Declan Rice, the first trophy-winning West Ham skipper in 43 years.

Given how much they have in common, it was perhaps not a huge surprise to see Adams call for the midfielder to be handed the Arsenal armband earlier this week, the man they call Mr. Arsenal saying Rice can "lay the foundations of a title-winning team." Current captain Martin Odegaard, he insisted, could not.

How to watch Arsenal vs. Manchester United

Date: Sunday, Aug. 17 | Time: 11:30 a.m. ETLocation: Old Trafford -- Manchester, EnglandTV: NBC | Stream: Fubo (Start watching, save $20!) Odds: Arsenal -118; Draw +270; United +310

Had Adams had a vote in the Arsenal dressing room on Thursday, however, he would have found himself resoundingly outvoted. Mikel Arteta revealed in his press conference ahead of Sunday's trip to Manchester United that the first team squad had selected their leadership group for the new season in a group vote, one which Odegaard won "by a mile, by a big, big 100 marks, everybody choosing the same person." One suspects the decision was no great shock to Arteta, the coach who brought the Norwegian to the Emirates Stadium in 2021 and made him the club captain the following year.

"Martin has got hundreds of qualities," Arteta said. "Everyone who has come across him will notice them very quickly. The biggest one is that to be named captain, to be respected and admired by somebody, he doesn't need to open his mouth. That's a massive quality.

"A lot of people talk and shout and then when you close the door they do something very different. Martin doesn't. He doesn't need to open his mouth and everyone will go 'he's my captain, I want him to represent me, I trust him 100%, he's the guy I want to have next to me'. That says it all."

Odegaard will only use Adams' comments as fuel for a new season where he is as determined as anyone at Arsenal to end the wait for major silverware. If he needed any reminding of the esteem in which he is held by his teammates, the vote offered just that. There are reasons why his teammates so value the Norwegian.

Those who know him well speak glowingly of his pastoral qualities. Odegaard will seek out new arrivals and young players and go out of his way to ensure that they are settling into the environment. A player who was thrust into the limelight as a 16-year-old when Real Madrid won the pan-European race for his services is as well placed as anyone to advise Myles Lewis-Skelly, Ethan Nwaneri and Max Dowman on how to turn potential into production.

Adams might not see Odegaard smashing heads together on the field but the current Arsenal captain knows how to get his message across. Those with knowledge of how he acts behind closed doors will say that Odegaard is not afraid of shouting or getting passionate when the situation calls for it. When it does, his message carries through.

Arteta had called the vote to reflect changes in the leadership group following the summer transfer window. Jorginho had often donned the armband prior to his move to Flamengo and while Gabriel Jesus remains at the club, his ability to lead the team is limited as he recovers from injury. The likes of Bukayo Saka, Rice and Gabriel Magalhaes now figure to don the armband when Odegaard is not around.

"At the end, what matters the most is how these guys feel about who needs to lead them, how they feel comfortable, who is going to push them, who is going to give them support when it's happening," said Arteta. "Basically, who do you want to represent the club and the team when we go out there and face any opposition? That's the key."

For some, the identity of the captain at any club might seem little more than a formality, a ceremonial position of ever-decreasing importance as football becomes more systemized. At Arsenal, however, the armband has frequently taken on great importance. In the years after Adams and Vieira, the captaincy became devalued under Arsene Wenger, who used it as a sop to keep the likes of Thierry Henry and Robin van Persie for a season or two longer.

At the same time, others at the Emirates Stadium were concerned over the devaluation of the captaincy. Then-chief executive Ivan Gazidis was known to have been a keen reader of The Captain Class, a 2016 book which posited that the one quality shared by the greatest teams across all sports was transformative individual leadership. Its author, Sam Walker, has subsequently worked with Arsenal owners KSE.

Odegaard might not be the old school rabble rouser that Adams was, but he has long understood that he can be the one to bring his teammates together. This summer, every new Arsenal signing was greeted with a handwritten note from a teammate, most of which came from the club captain. Odegaard arranges gatherings for teammates and their families, with Saka regularly popping round to watch a match with the captain. His friendship with Kai Havertz has delighted social media.

Ultimately, the best way in which Odegaard can reaffirm his status as a leader in the Arsenal side is the same way that Adams, Vieira, McLintock and Arteta did when they were captains: by being one of the best players in the team. For Odegaard, that status was rarely, if ever, up for debate prior to last season, when the 26-year-old struggled to shake off an ankle injury suffered in September and delivered just six goals and 12 assists in all competitions, a decent drop off from the 20-plus goal involvements he had delivered in the previous two campaigns.

Preseason has hinted at a return to form for Odegaard, who has moved into more advanced and central positions in a rejigged midfield. "Nobody else is going to be more [determined to improve]," said Arteta. "The way that Martin trains, plays, prepares himself, the demands that he puts on himself: there is no question about that. Our job is to give him the best context, tools and players around him to facilitate his qualities. We're ready to do that."

If those qualities are facilitated to the highest level, then questions over Odegaard's captaincy will surely drift away. After all, what could be a better way to lead than through scoring and assisting as many goals as the captain did prior to last season? If those lead to the silverware Arsenal have been craving, then Odegaard may well take a place among the pantheon of great captains in red and white.