Arsenal suffered from their reliance on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang at the start of this season when the former Borussia Dortmund striker’s goals dried up.
He had been the team’s main source of goal for so long, so when he stopped scoring Arsenal couldn’t win a game again.
He was absent as Arsenal turned their form around with a 3-1 win against Chelsea three matches ago.
They also beat Brighton in their next game with him starting. The team struggled in that second game with him as their top striker, and they only got their goal when Alexandre Lacazette was subbed on.
Aubameyang had some near misses in that match, and he also couldn’t score despite starting the next game against West Brom.
At the moment, the Gabon striker cannot buy a goal and that is what he is paid to do for the club.
Arsenal had sidelined Mesut Ozil because he couldn’t create goals, if Aubameyang cannot score, isn’t it fair that he spends some time on the bench too?
Aubameyang has been immense for this Arsenal team, and I still think that he will get back to scoring form at some point this season.
But now that he cannot score, it is only sensible that he stays on the bench while the likes of Lacazette and Gabriel Martinelli, who have been performing the better play for the team.
If Arteta continues to play him just because he has a good reputation, soon his barren spell will rub off on the rest of the team.
An article from Ime
It won’t do him any harm to be benched foe a few games , he will probably be a better player for it. I was a little bit shocked at Mart being left out though, okay his last game was’nt a stunner but how many games does Auba get before the chop.
No. Because it will upset the dressing room, since Aubameyang is our captain, a senior player, on a huge contract and he made us get FA Cup last season
Martinelli might not want to wait though, like Saliba. Therefore Martinelli has to be the main substitute for Lacazette as well, instead of Nketiah and Balogun
Not sure about the rub off part.
If good performances by individual players like Saka and Tierney didn’t rub off on the rest of the team during our winless run, I wouldn’t worry too much about Auba’s barren spell rubbing off on the rest of the team.
Nonetheless, if he’s underperforming, he should be benched
Auba played well in the last 2 games…the goals will come for sure…let him keep playing….strikers go thru a dry spell,that doesn’t mean he should be benched…..still the best finisher at the club.
Having finished my rewatch… he played very well on Sat. The goals will come. Getting tired of the consistent negativity here. We’ve got 3 in a row, stay upbeat and positive folks.
Exactly he had a good a game and its a shame that He wasn’t in the score sheet but he is still vital for us. Saw many comments here that we were playing 11 vs 10 because of Auba but I bet you that West brom defenders never tought that, only our typical negative fans here.
Come off it. He probably felt more pressure than anyone during our winless streak as everyone looks to him to turn games in our favour. Now the team are sharing the goals and performing better the pressure should be less and he will find his goals soon.
Can super negative fans be benched?
We will need all the benches in the world for that.
Stick with him. He’s carried us for over two seasons. We have to back him. He’ll get back to form. He just needs to keep a positive attitude and show captain qualities. Martinelli is still coming back from a long term injury and cannot be overplayed anyways.
Any fan who HONESTLY believes Auba is giving his best this season in EFFORT, is not being truthful with themself. As such he should be dropped and the harder working MARTINELLI PREFERRED.
No player can justify a place by previous seasons perfs and reputation. Reputation kept Wenger here many more years than he should hace been. ALL players need to earn their place every time they play!
Jon de fox, I always enjoy your objectivity and honesty. You said it all and am 100% with you.
Alizaba, Thank you very much!
This is probably the only time I’ve ever agreed with you. Ever since he signed the new contract he shows this “I don’t care” attitude.
Top class finisher- end of….
Needs service to score, the last two games where much better at this.
No one is bigger than the team and his form isn’t good. He shouldn’t be first choice right now (don’t think he is), but we also need to rotate to reduce risk of injury. Our only hope with him is that he can score a couple of goals and get his confidence back, otherwise he’s not going to offer much. Outside of the 4 current first choice starters (Laca, Saka, ESR and GM) nobody else is anyway.
Send him on loan . He is useless , Arsenal found the new Ozil.
This is pure nonsense and shows how short the human memory can be. Auba has been playing on the wings for months without any complaints about his workrate. I remeber him blocking crosses in defence and racing forward to score. So because he doesn’t score for a couple of games, he is now useless? Even CR7 and Messi go through periods of drought and the club and fans support them through the spell. Arsenal fans are quite something else. Auba has carried the team for years and anything less than full support in a tough moment is disrespectful after the horrible football we’ve seen from the entire team this season. I love Martinelli’s input to the game, but we should not just disregard Auba’s contributions over the preceding months. The manager has to find a way to rotate the squad and keep everyone happy. The goals will surely flow.
Number one rule of managing a team: take care of your star player during the ups and downs.
I thought Wenger made that clear?
Having such a long goal drought is new to both aubameyang and Arsenal so it is difficult to know what to do with him. Arteta kept playing him hoping expecting him to snap out of this bad patch which is understandable.
The big unknown is his mindset as if he took our bad form responsibility fully on his shoulders and is putting too much pressure on himself then benching him will further kill his confidence especially if we keep winning without him. But if he just hit a fitness bad patch then rotating him with martenelli will re-energize him. Remember auba does not have the stamina to play the high workrate winger arteta wants. Less energy when attacking means less focus while finishing.
Apologies @ Ackshay. This reply was meant for @ G.giarlis.