Paul Merson believes Mikel Arteta’s decision to offload Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from his squad is the catalyst for Arsenal’s recent success.
The Gunners are now at the top of the Premier League table, having won all their league matches.
They are on their way to a successful season, and Arteta deserves credit.
When he became the club’s manager, Arsenal was a struggling giant that had underperformed for several seasons.
The club’s culture was poor and certainly not a winning one. The Spaniard wanted to change that straight away, and it cost some of the players their Arsenal careers.
The most high-profile departure under the Spaniard was Aubameyang, and Merson believes offloading him was a defining moment for Arsenal.
Merson told The Sun: ‘I was very impressed with the way Arteta handled Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
‘He took a massive chance with a player who was a huge influence in the dressing room and it’s worked. You have to make a statement when you’re a new manager.
‘George Graham did it many years ago when he came to Arsenal and got rid of Charlie Nicholas, Tony Woodcock, Graham Rix, Viv Anderson and Steve Williams.’
Just Arsenal Opinion
Auba was an important player for us, but he lost focus, and that could have affected the dressing room.
Offloading him sent a message to the rest of the team that discipline is an important part of the new culture.
Arsenal will still struggle if the defence isn’t strong ,playing well in their first 5 games but when they come across, Manchester city,United, Liverpool, Chelsea and spurs that will count ,,if they can’t beat them again their an average team
Nothing is wrong with our defense, the match will lost today was because referee and VAR have decided that Man United were going to win the game no matter what
I think if you look at the replay from Leicester city game you will spot the difference that the referee is totally against us today
Why most time epl ref officiating doesn’t always pay us, imagine the foul on saka against Aston villa the ref look away and VAR didn’t look up to it, the foul on Ramsdale against Aston villa goal stood. VAR has purely deny us 3goals this season alone and more to come.
It was not the defense. Did you see the midfield how many times it was exposed constantly? Transfer deadline drama came back to haunt us. That’s it.Both Partey and El neny were out.No protection or controlling the midfield as required.
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Exactly
What cause that game is midfielders and neva worked well Erickson is been given neva been mack out also mic tominay sambi lakonga make it expose almost got himself with card and var and spoil the show just because they want man united arsenal could have given the first Goal but bad decision from var and ref cos us imagine soft foul like that
The problem is the midfield same mistakes of last season of last4 games why not buying Ndidi someone who plays like
Partey
@ DJ, you think Leicester city will sell him to us? Yesterday game is gone and we should move on… We have been robbed by the officials in which I stated before this, so there is nothing we can do about that….. Onward and upward we move on COYG….
I find it disappointing how so many of our fans do not seem to see or realise the IMPORTANCE OF THE SCINTILATING ATTACKING FOOTBALL WE PLAYED AT UNITED.
Yes we perhaps played too recklessly when chasing the win , having equalised.
But what I saw and also GIVE DUE IMPORTANCE TO, is the scintillating , even magnetically thrilling interpasing at great speed and with such panache!
Unlike some on JA who always find fault, I was thrilled by the manner of our all round play, which was IMO of an evenhigher standard and against a far better team then we have played so far this season.
Yes we lost, BUT unlike some, I have the vision to look BEYOND the actual 90 mins and see the incredible ADVANCEMENT in our team and our play from even last season. I am convinced this team under MA IS REALLY TAKING OFF.
Why do others not seem to see it,or if they do, they do not seem to mention it, though a very few HAVE done but NOT most Gooners, disappointingly!
THERE ARE NONE SO BLIND AS THOSE WHO WILL NOT SEE!!
Aubameyang should never hv been allowed to join Barcelona for nothing. He’s a proven goal scorer who’s now going to torment us.