Speculation has been rife over the absence of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang since he was missing from the training pictures yesterday, and it was reported last night that he wouldn’t be in the squad for today’s game against Southampton.
There was an initial suggestion he was unwell, but just now, however, Mikel Arteta revealed it was down to disciplinary reasons.
Speaking to Sky Sports, he was asked why the captain was missing, and replied, “Unfortunately, due to a disciplinary breach, and I think we’ve been very consistent.
“There are certain non-negotiables for the team that we have set ourselves at the club, and he’s not involved today.”
Asked it were a long-term ban or just for this match, Arteta replied, “It starts today.
“It’s not an easy situation, we don’t want to have our club captain in that situation.”
It’s not the first time Aubameyang has fallen foul of the club’s strict rules. Last season he was left out of the team for a North London derby for arriving late, and this latest transgression is surely to raise all kinds of questions about his long-term future.
For now, let’s just beat Southampton and go from there.
The plot thickens
Terrible from Arteta. He cant keep doing this with players. Auba has never been the one to track back and you cant accept him to at his age. He only thrives on service and has been for ages. But i have seen very less of Arteta’s coaching in two years than see him falling out with players.
To be fair, rules are rules. We don’t know what’s happened but I very much doubt not tracking back would be a disciplinary breach.
I have to say, I’m cool with players getting dropped if they don’t adhere to the managers standards.
Has any arsenal manager fell out with so many players ?
I don’t get where your comment started to where it ended up. He’s out of the squad for disciplinary reasons and it’s not something new.
We’re better off without him anyway. He’s out of form, and even when we do send him the ball, he loses it fairly promptly. He has no hold up play. Lacazette only works as a second striker, back to goal, with someone ahead of him. I think we should have gone with a 4-4-1-1 with Lacazette behind Martinelli up front. And Emil Smith Rowe in for Xhaka. I think Smith Rowe could turn into a great box to box midfielder (like we should have done with Wilshere). He has the pace and excitement to move the ball quickly through midfield,… Read more »
ESR can be new Cazorla
Auba, Laca and Nketiah all need replacing..Wilshere never had the legs or power to play box to box his best position and time at the club was in between Song and Fabregas. But i see your point on Smith Rowe.
I thought Wilshere played best when coming from deep alongside a proper DM. Call it box to box? Maybe not, but I meant driving from deep.
Don’t think not tracking back counts as a disciplinary issue. It’s more of a footballing reason.
He probably turned up late again or violated one of the new covid safety measures in place.
Myeh, couldn’t care less one way or another the way he’s been playing in recent weeks. If this gives Gabi a good run in the side, I’m all for it.
…Of the Non- Negotiables…
Crazy in so many ways…
Kinda crazy that in our last three captains we’ve had…
Gone on strike
Told the fans to fuck right off
Multiple disciplinary problems
Let’s hope Kieran Tierney restores a little of the old skool after this sorry bunch.
I was thinking this. Not just captains though, like why does it always end up in a weird situation with our star players in general. Was it a blessing in disguise all those years where we’d flog our stars before they ended up this way?
I have to say, I think Wenger bought some weird characters. Strange people, both on and off the field.
Say what you want about the new arrivals, I can’t see any of them having problems with attitude and disciplinary breaches.
Lacazette is captain today?
Yeah. I guess so. Or Xhaka. But I reckon Laca.
Actually starting to think that Ramsdale would make a good captain.
Glad to see the culture change has been working out.
Doesn’t look good all things considered. I hope we win today.
The armband curse continues.
Nice work Arteta, really upholding our club’s values and standards
Funny how Auba always seemed to get on with his previous coaches just fine
Who says he doesn’t get on with Arteta? He said it was a disciplinary breach, not that they hate each other.
Lol!! Nice one☺️
Erm…are we forgetting the way he left Dortmund?
That was a one time attempt to force himself out of the club. It wasn’t an ongoing series of being randomly dropped for matches for being late to training or parking in the wrong space or something.
Tuchel loved him, said he much preferred players who sometimes turned up late but always trained with intensity than those who were always early but just went through the motions
Different coaches, different ways of managing players. That doesn’t mean one way is definitely better than the other.
Why always us.
Oh hey the non-negotiable are back! How long will he pretend they exist this time?
Until Xhaka breaks them again
The non-negotiables seem to be very woolly with Arteta.
Letting the side down with indiscipline on the pitch is rewarded with immediate game time on return. Sticking fingers up at the fans and telling them some very unpleasant things to do is also perfectly fine. Say you don’t want to stay at the club and you are in the squad and playing in the next two matches.
Arteta doesn’t have an awful lot of credibility or consistency.
Motm performances get you dropped and benched
We wont miss him much.
We could do without this kind of shenanigans right now – thanks for setting a good example to the rest of the team Auba….
Talkin in public about internal affairs is very very very unprofessional Mr Mikel
If it is genuinely necessary to drop him for this ‘disciplinary breach’ fine, do what you need to do.
But how helpful is it announcing this to the entire world to fuel the ‘Arsenal are a mess’ narrative the media love?
Keep it in house ffs.
Agree with the sentiment, but I guess you’ve got to say something when questions asked. If you’re not straight about it, you end up looking bad when the truth comes out. Bit of a no win situation really.
Arteta naivete showing again.
Really, why? Not the first time aubamayang has broke club rules. Unacceptable for a captain of Arsenal to consistently do what the fuck he likes regardless of of the club’s code of conduct. NO ONE is bigger than the club.
My thoughts exactly. Why does the rest of the world have to be brought in? What purpose does it serve?
FFS if only we could bin him off we could have a chance of securing Vlahovic/Isak/Calvert-Lewin…….
Didn’t Abua go on strike just before he left Dortmund? Really wouldn’t be surprised if he is sold in January
Given his recent performances, salary, and age, I would be very surprised if we managed to sell him at all.
Auba can’t do it on the pitch or it seems off it!
Time for Tierney to be handed armband
You just know he’d rather give it to his boy Xhaka.
Why can’t he keep it in house. Dropped – fine, but what does making it public achieve?
Just not possible. As we’ve just seen, the very fact that he’s not around sends the soshal meejah rumour trolls into a frenzy. I’m sure that we’d have heard Auba has been abducted by aliens soon.
Arteta’s obliged to come out with the truth to shut the tossers up.
If Arteta did, you’d be asking why he’s coy about it.
Making it public means that the story is essentially stopped from developing. Some scribblers might get an article out of it but nothing much and nobody will care. Now consider what a malignant press would do with either no info or incomplete info or worse, a direct lie. In case there’s any doubt, ‘keeping it quiet’ would produce a raft of dozens of stories, all made up and all making numerous assumptions. You want that? I know I don’t. So he’s been a naughty boy. So what? If someone’s been a bit silly the last thing you want is a… Read more »
Sends a fucking message to an increasingly overpaid primadonna who is the captain of the team ffs!! Absolutely make it public. Not the first time this dude has pulled the same bs.
It is the only course of action after he set out the non-negotiables. People don’t respond well to different standards for some individual in a group.
Won’t be missed today.. But still.
But still what? Great opportunity to finally take the armband off him. Should have happened 2 seasons ago.
I really miss Wengers ‘ i didn’t see it’ and other anecdotes. ‘the process’ and ‘non negotiables’ are just highly irritating to hear now.
Auba missed training so should be punished but keep that within the club.
Ozil, Guendouzi, Kolasinac, Pepe, and now Auba… When do we grow up and get the fact that it’s Arteta and not the players constantly? He breaks players, next on the list is Martinelli, then I expect Partey. Worst manager in the history of Arsenal.
sad to see Arseblog app becoming really worse from last one year, either crashes constantly or doesn’t load
Use the website, it’s great on mobile. App is fine, but it might be an issue with your device.
Who cares about what he has done?
Its what he does on the pitch that is important and this season he has done nothing.
Southampton need the points desperately and have started strongly knowing that Arsenal are utterly spineless under pressure and are a guaranteed three points if you are prepared to push a little.
Arsenal are so average…
For me Arteta is too comfortable in the managers seat, it doesn’t matter win or lose it seems there’s no pressure on him from the club and with the current “process” he should be looking over his shoulder an awful lot more. I’ve said it before he doesn’t have the skill set to bring us forward.
And then Auba says he wants to retire at Arsenal! Yeah that’d be a no. This guy is so dramatic every time you drop him out of the team. This is a reoccurring thing for
him now. He should learn something from Laca, Martinelli. They’ve been out of the team for long periods but never had such issues!
Time for him to go I’m afraid as not only had he passed his prime but now he is being a tit
Is there a correlation between Auba’s drop in form, and the allegations that were posted on twitter by that Spanish Journalist? 🤔
Unlikely I know but I wouldn’t mind if both auba and xhaka were got shot of in January but only if they are properly replaced – players like ramsdale are a breath of fresh air attitude and performance wise, great signing 👍
Well last time he was excluded for disciplinary reasons we won so let’s hope for more of the same today
Personally, I love the rebuild of getting rid of aged overpaid ego-driven players with disciplinary issues and don’t realise how bloody privileged they are. Then build a young squad with model professional who want to play for the Club, are hungry and won’t let their team mates down. This is not the first disciplinary issue and he was renown for it at Dortmund. Sell him!
I don’t quite understand the vitriol directed toward Arteta regarding his captain making stupid decisions and getting himself benched. Auba should be leading by example. He should be held to a higher standard considering he wears the captains band and he should know better. Considering how poor his form has been this year he should be out on the training pitch working three times as hard as anyone.
I don’t really get it either. I’m not an Arteta fan by any means, but how does it look to the rest of the team when your captain can’t be bothered to turn up on time to the North London Derby and misses practice right before matchday. I mean if Arteta has a rule for everyone that if you miss practice or show up late you get dropped, why wouldn’t he enforce it? It’s not like Aubameyang doesn’t have previous for this sort of thing.
If we want to create an elite performance culture, then we need elite behaviour
We pay Aubameyang a lot of money, he’s a senior player, and our captain, he should be leading by example
Aubameyang‘s off pitch antics are a constant distraction. He’s paid so much by the club, but it doesn’t seem to translate into putting the club’s schedule and rules ahead of a hundred other personal things he wants to do.
We do need a blend of youth and experience, but this jaded half-hearted approach to basic timekeeping is sometimes the downside to having a “star” player who has other things on his mind.