Arsene Wenger says that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been working hard on his fitness, having only played a couple of times since he arrived in January.
The lack of February fixtures, and the fact he’s been cup-tied for the Europa League means his last appearance was in the 1-0 North London derby defeat over two weeks ago.
It’s given the Arsenal staff time to get him up to speed physically, and the Arsenal boss is hoping that freshness will count when his side meet Man City in the Carabao Cup final today.
“He has only played twice but on the other hand when he came here he had not played for a while,” Wenger told Sky Sports. “He was not at his best physically and we took advantage of the last two weeks to build him up physically.
“I think he will be much sharper than he was. You could see day after day that he is much sharper than he was two or three weeks ago.
“I think his great strengths are his finishing, the quality of his runs and his pace, of course. Our target on Sunday will be to find him two or three times each half in dangerous positions because he is sharp now.
“The handicap is that we have not played a lot with him but his runs are so clever that I think we have players who can find him.”
Let’s hope so because if we are to stand a chance of winning today he could well be a very important part of that. The game kicks off this afternoon at 4.30.
COYG.. Lets make the cup OURS today.
No hiding today.
On current form, I don’t see us creating a lot of chances. Auba will need to be clinical if we’re going to have any chance of winning. Amazingly, there’s still a part of me that thinks we might see a performance reminiscent of a proper Arsenal team today. I guess there’s no point being a football fan if you can’t be somewhat optimistic about a cup final.
Hope you not comparing the europa performance with what I gonna happen today ???
It’s more the Sp*rs performance I’m worried about. A huge game against a tough opponent that we were absolute shite in, and City are considerably better than them. Not to mention that unlike the europa league match, the team we put out today will be similar to the one against that lot. And, you know, we’ve had a pretty bad season overall so far. In conclusion, we’re going to smash those oily twats and lift one of the two cups we’re going to win this season. That of course will mean that we will gain admittance to both the champions… Read more »
We need a captains performance from Ozil today if we’re to stand any chance
what we need and what we get are to different things
Hoping for the best & expecting the worst – it’s the Arsenal way of recent years!
Hopefully the manager puts out a team with tactics that work, it seems that every big game he needs to over-think and make it harder than it should be. The selection against liverpool, the tactics against the sanitary pads down the road. We need to be at our best but we know we can beat city.
Sharp guy…..
I like him…..
Yep sharp seems to be a good word to describe him
I for one would love Iwobi’s industry…. If he turns up He’d be a menace to City’s defence. He does know how to beat his man and he protects the ball well. Hope he’s fit
Well, I must admit I am approaching this with some trepidation. My heart says yes!, we can win this. but my head, the rational part of me says…..Yes!, we can win this!. So COYG, lets go grab our cup!
Oooh..so Auba is the problem..silly me I thought our problems are bigger than that..let’s hope he’s sharp today so all our problems get fixed..
Unlike the Spu*s game..today I have absolutely no optimism on the team…But I’m open to surprises so COYG
you had optimism against spurs
Watch as we pass backward when Aubameyang runs forward.
I don’t see us creating many chances, but let’s make those that we do have count. Win it for Wenger, boys! COYG!
lets hope jack or ramsey can find him then
When this is your plan, and it fails so badly, you need a new manager. Auba had zero service today. So whatever our manager did to get the team to “find Auba” was a complete and total failure
Forget service. He had a number of balls put to him but frankly if you are truly world class, you make things happen for yourself. That was the case for Henry. He could dictate the play and hold the ball, dribble past 2 or 3 players at will. That was also the case for (unpopular i know) RVP. He would make something happen for us. That would be the case for Alexis as well (maybe last season) BUT what we’ve done this January is further compound the malaise rather than fix problems in midfield (and defense). We have not replaced… Read more »