As Arsène Wenger surveyed the wreckage of Arsenal's season yesterday, amid a mood of sombre reflection, he pinpointed two key problems to resolve if the 2008-09 campaign is not to prove similarly barren. Mathieu Flamini must sign a new contract, and soon, the Arsenal manager said, and the captaincy dilemma has to be sorted out, too.

Flamini could leave for nothing at the end of this season, when his contract expires. Yet while Wenger believes that he is close to agreeing a new deal with the France midfield player, he will not break the club's stringent pay policy and wants the issue put to bed by the end of this month.

“We are getting close to ‘yes' or -no',” Wenger said. “He wants to stay and I believe him. But as long as he has not signed, he is free to sign where he wants. We have set ourselves a target at the end of April to finalise the situation, one way or the other.

“April is an absolute deadline because, afterwards, we have to make decisions in the transfer market. My first target is to keep the team together, but we want to continue to respect our wage structure. That is very important. Flamini has to fit in that.”

The future of Flamini should have a happy outcome. He is likely to stay at the Emirates Stadium. More perplexing for Wenger, although he has more time in which to solve the puzzle, is who should wear the armband next season.

William Gallas, the incumbent, has not been convincing over the past eight months and his bizarre sit-down protest at the end of the 2-2 draw with Birmingham City at St Andrew's in February demonstrated a lack of leadership. A series of erratic displays by the central defender has not helped his case, either. Wenger is rarely shy to offer votes of confidence to his players, individually or collectively, yet Gallas received no such support from his fellow Frenchman. Would Gallas be captain next season?

“At the moment, I cannot answer that,” Wenger said. “I want to analyse the season after the season has finished. I believe he has learned a lot this year and his commitment and desire to do well was exceptional.”

Also counting against Gallas is Arsenal's recent defensive record. During a run of only two wins in 13 matches in all competitions, a sequence that sentenced the team to a third successive campaign without a trophy, the long-time Barclays Premier League leaders kept only three clean sheets.

“Nobody expected us to do well, we were a team starting with no pressure,” Wenger said. “But in March, when we were under pressure, we started making mistakes. We weren't completely mature to deal with that pressure. We can score goals, but what we could not stop was conceding goals in big matches.

“We don't feel inferior to any side and yet we are out of all the competitions. We lost a 100 metres race on the photo finish. It is difficult to swallow because we still made a good race, but you finish empty handed. It hurts deeply. Now we have to discover that little bit that turns losers into winners.”

Steve Coppell, the Reading manager, would like to discover the secret, too. He takes his relegation-threatened team to the Emirates Stadium today on a run of three matches without a win or a goal. “Nobody expects anything from us,” Coppell said. “It's a good position to be in. English teams love being underdogs. It brings out the best in them.”