Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger says it would be a "cheap excuse" to blame the Gunners' failings this season on captain William Gallas
The 30-year-old former Chelsea defender was something of a surprise choice to replace Thierry Henry as the Gunners' permanent skipper.
However, it had looked to be a sound judgment by Wenger, as Gallas took his team to the top of the table and towards the knockout stages of the Champions League.
However, Gallas came in for criticism when he broke down in the centre-circle following the last-gasp draw at Birmingham on an afternoon where Arsenal lost striker Eduardo to an horrific broken leg and also saw two points slip away in the closing moments - not to mention a controversial magazine article commenting on Theo Walcott's development.
Gallas, who arrived from Chelsea as part of the deal which took Ashley Cole to Stamford Bridge in August 2006, briefly touched on the subject in what could be his final programme notes ahead of the Everton game. He observed: "This was my first season as captain and I can tell you that I have certainly learnt a lot in the job.
"As for my thoughts on my captaincy so far, I want to keep that to myself. The season is not yet over so we cannot reflect on the season yet, we can do that at the end."
While Wenger did not single out his captain for any blame, seeing Arsenal's failure to last the course as a collective weakness, he hardly handed Gallas a ringing endorsement of his leadership role.
"I don't share the view that Gallas is a bad captain. He is a captain who is very committed and tries to work hard for the team," said Wenger.
"He had an outburst at Birmingham, but I still believe today that, even if that was a mistake, that was not why we did not win the championship.
"That would be too easy as an excuse because there are other incidents. That would be a cheap excuse.
"At the time [of the Birmingham game] we were five points in front and everybody had been praising his captaincy.
"I believe we all make mistakes and we had to come back as a unit and try to win the championship."
However, Wenger would not commit on just who would wear the armband come August.
"It [the captaincy issue] has been raised by a lot of newspapers, but I must say I have not looked at the situation yet," he said.
"My priority is to keep this team together and then we will see where we go for next season."
Arsenal head to Sunderland on Sunday for their final game of what has been a rollercoaster campaign, and which could well end with fewer league defeats than champions-elect Manchester United.
Wenger is set to have some rebuilding work to do over the summer, with out-of-contract midfielder Mathieu Flamini having signed up for AC Milan as speculation continues over the future of Inter Milan target Alexander Hleb.
"I will try to buy, maybe in the defensive area and one on the creative side of the game as well because we had some players, important players, who were out this year," said Wenger, who has been linked with a £12million move for Portsmouth's Croatian winger Niko Kranjcar.
"When there is a problem in England, people say 'you have to buy' - but you have to consider as well the development of your players internally.
"It isn't just down to money because we have bought players for nothing and they became world stars.
"It is as well down to the quality of the scouting, the quality of the work in training and the quality of the development in the players.
"I believe much more in that, working in an intelligent way to make a player improve.
"If we lose, people leave the game and say 'Wenger you must buy a centre forward' if we haven't scored, or they want a central defender if someone has made a mistake. But you have to accept that the team can be developed.
"This team made 68 points last year and this year 83. That is 15 points difference and in between we lost Thierry Henry and we lost many, many important players during the season. So you cannot say the team has not developed. Now the target for next season must be to make 90 or 92 points
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