Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been incredible since he joined Arsenal, scoring a record amount of goals and easily our top scorer every season, but he was also labelled with the assumption that he always goes missing in the big games.
But I think he has now proved those naysayers wrong, and Mikel Arteta made that clear on Arsenal.com after the Gabonese hitman got another Man Of The Match award in the Cup Final. “Big games require big moments from big players, and he’s delivered that in the semi-final and he’s done it again in the final. That’s why you ask about those players. Some were questioning that he couldn’t do it in big games. There we go. He was a big, big part of delivering this trophy. He’s done it and we are so proud to have a player like him in our squad.”
Of course Arteta was then asked about the chances of Auba signing a new contract, and although Arteta has made it clear that nothing is yet set in stone, he has been doing his best to persuade him to stay. The boss replied: “I hope so. Everything is based on my conversations with him, how he sees his future, what I expect from him, the team that I want to build around him, and the conversations I have with the people who are very influential around him. The club, we all respect and admire him, the players are all behind him. We know the players that we have and we have to value him. I think if we reach all of those points, we’ll make progress.”
It must be very difficult for Arteta not to be sure yet if his best player and captain will still be at the club next season, but I can’t think of a better way to persuade him than to give the player happiness and a trophy, and of course confidence that we can be even better next season.
I personally am much more hopeful Aubameyang will stay now compared to a few months ago.
C’mon boss, sign da ting!
