Can you blame Aubameyang if his mind really is still on the weekend?
Reports in the Sun today claim that Mikel Arteta has blasted our captain for his performance against Olympiakos in the latest round of Europa League fixtures.
Aubameyang missed several chances during the game, despite getting into good positions, he failed to find the finish to put the ball in to the back of the net. Had he done though we could have been three or even four nil up and won comfortably, but failure to do so meant we would go the whole game without scoring although he wasn’t the only striker on the pitch!
However, Arteta seems to think that Aubameyang played the way he did because his mind may possibly still be on the Spurs game Sunday where he was left out for disciplinary reasons.
Speaking on Aubameyang’s missed chances, Arteta stated: “I hope the weekend isn’t still on his mind. We moved on, he started, and we expect when he does play he performs at the level he can. We had a tough opponent, we knew that, we knew that they weren’t going to give up, so happy to be through. But at the same time we have to be fair with ourselves and today we were nowhere near the levels that we have to set ourselves. It has been a really demanding week but I don’t think we have to use any excuses. We have refreshed the team, we have players that they were fresh, and we know the importance of the competition.”
As I have said before, yes authority from a manager is a good thing, but if Aubameyang was late for a generally good reason then I don’t blame him for having it on his mind as he could feel that he was wrongly disciplined and disrespected. It could however be that it has genuinely been such a tough week and getting the job done in Greece then flying back and playing Spurs where we walked away with all three points and then playing another tough opponent in Olympiakos has taken its toll.
Let’s hope it is the second reasoning and that the boys and Aubameyang will be fully fit and fired up for the derby against West Ham on Sunday, where they will be looking to walk away with all three points.
Here’s hoping hey Gooners?
Shenel Osman
auba is 31 yrs old professional footballer and if this happened because he was benched in the weekend then we are looking at the man who will not stay or perform for us for much longer. regarding the argument that arsenal had 3 tough fixtures one after another is also not really convincing as we played olympiakos twice with spurs just inbetween, while NLD is always a tough game we cannot say that olympiakos is a tough opponent. if we cannot beat olympiakos by 2-3 goals difference then its hard to imagine we can go all the way to the finals
He had an off day, it happens to the best of them. He’ll be back and banging them in before we know it.
I’m certainly not writing him off!!
To answer the headline question :
Sorry I don’t know, as I’m not a psychiatrist.
My question is: why do so many people think that Auba was benched for being late one time? My view is that his late arrival before Spuds was just the “straw that broke the camel’s back”. Regardless, Auba needs to man up. He’s a professional footballer. He should be happy he is rich and plays a game for a living.
Shenel, it is generally acknowledged that Aubameyang was disciplined, because he has been a serial offender with his lack of punctuality. His excuses have probably worn thin on the manager. Also, it has been stated that Arteta’s action was supported the other players.
If Aubameyang’s poor play against Olympiakos was due to his reaction to the disciplinary action, one should be concerned about his mental fragility.
One hopes that Barber is wrong and Sue is right, in that Aubameyang’s form is an aberration and he starts banging them in again.
Agree ozziegunner
Shenel appears to have a problem with Arteta over this issue. Sorry, too many articles about the poor bloke being reprimanded for being late and then this potentially being a reason why he had a poor game.
lol
He is fast becoming another Ozil situation and when he does not score he does not contribute anything to the team.
The point is Arteta has to play Martinelli so that he is ready for next season.
Now we are hearing that Auba comes late frequently. Well sorry I cant believe that with so many leaks always coming out of the club and with the way player and manager relationships have been handled in public I refuse to believe any of such news coming out of the club. With the way the club has handled cases like Giroud, the BFG, Koscielny when he was leaving, Ozil’s everlasting saga, Mustafi, Kolasinac, Saliba, AMN, now Aubameyang etc, I have observed a clear pattern and do not trust the club on issues like this, sorry.
Its been worse ever since Arteta came in, once the club or Arteta doesn’t like a player or disciplines a player, at first a number of people will be against it, then next there will be a leak about the wrongs of the player to sway people’s mind and all of a sudden majority will begin to support the decision of the club. If I may ask, how many people before now knew Auba comes late frequently? Why didn’t he spin the wheel? Why did Arteta deliberately bring the issue public?
Saliba was doing well in France and everyone started criticizing Arsenal and Arteta’s treatment of him then suddenly a video is leaked to tarnish the image of the young man. At that point social media changes focus from how Arsenal treated him badly to maybe Arteta and Arsenal were right based on the video.
Guendouzi too, how was the situation handled?
It all started with Wenger. Who actually started the terms AOB and AKB? The media didn’t really focus on the board and owners, the focus was that it was because of Wenger that we were only top 4 and not competing. Wenger out in came Emery, we were told by the media that Emery had a language problem. Big lie, you don’t tell me a coach that went
22 matches unbeaten, 1 point from top 4 and made the Europa League final has a language problem, hell no I don’t buy that. Maybe the players downed tools yes, but language NO. after that came Arleta. Arteta is a yes man and a media friendly man so he is always protected. Blames are shifted to certain players, the players are always blamed by the media and never the manager. Sometimes too the Kroenkes are blamed because they “have not been investing”.
But in all of these I have come to observe that the board and those actually running the club has had a way of staying off the radar no matter how bad things get. Why?
Personally I would suggest an investigation, an investigation into “ArsenalGate”. I suspect that players and previous two managers have been deliberately targeted and their images attacked for our decline, possiblly by the club itself.
Just my personal opinion, let’s have an investigation into “ArsenalGate Scandal”
Nonsense.
As if this is the first time this season he’s been rubbish or played shambolic.
The other times he played shambolic, was he also disciplined.
Nonsense.
Oh dear Shenel! Still trying to con us with this daft theory that Auba was late for reasons beyond his control. Give it a rest now for goodness sake and for two reasons.
First no one much agrees with you and secondly, it has been sorted out in house between Auba and MA. ENOUGH NOW!
Articles should be something interesting to us all and NOT about merely your personal and plain daft theory, that no one agrees.