The sight of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on the bench at the start of last night’s 2-0 win over Newcastle raised some eyebrows, but afterwards Unai Emery revealed the striker had been ill in midweek, thus his secondary role from the start.
The striker came on after 60 minutes though, and for a player who had been under the weather, produced plenty in that final half an hour, not least the assist for Alexandre Lacazette’s 83rd minute goal which sealed the three points for the Gunners.
Emery provided the update post-game, and gave some insight into the substitution of Aaron Ramsey midway through the second period which sparked fears of another injury for the Welshman.
“Aubameyang has had a temperature for two days and was doubtful to play today,” said Emery.
“But also, he is coming for us to start on the bench and after he was good and he felt good in his 30 minutes.”
As for Ramsey, Emery continued, “It’s only cramp. I don’t think it’s more and I hope he will be ready for Sunday at Everton.
“We started Friday with not good news with Xhaka, because he has a small injury and he could not play today.
“Koscielny was coming with us in the group, but with some pain, and he said to us he is not ready to play the match.
“But then, we had a good response from other players because we have players with good work who decided to play for us.
“I think we are going to play a lot of matches. Next Sunday and Napoli are two very hard matches and we need some players to give them some chances, some different minutes with some different systems and some different tactical ideas in each match.
“We will need everybody.”
I love Emery. His horses-for-courses approach is making Arsenal harder to beat – especially by the top 6, Liverpool away aside.
His just reward should be CL football. His sideline antics deserves to be displayed at the highest level.
The away games are going to be difficult, but I have seen enough to believe the team has enough hungry players to change our away day narrative in the weeks to come.
I think we’ll beat Everton for starters.
I agree with you about the away games. As you indicate, we have far better home form than away and five of our remaining seven games are away! Everton will be more difficult I think, but we’ve a reasonable record there so it will be a big disappointment if we don’t get at least one point, possibly all three.
Everton has been really solid in defense lately, getting 4 clean sheets out of last 5 games, incl. Liverpool & Chelsea.
Gonna be tough as hell!
The team has shown in recent weeks that they can unlock any defence.
My only concern is we may have to score more than one to get the win.
For a team that is averaging approximately 2.1 goals a game, we should get it done. I have never been this confident about Arsenal’s chances in a long while.
Lacazette, Aubameyang, Ozil, Ramsey, Mhkitaryan, Iwobi, Xhaka, Guendouzi, Kolasinach and Niles – any combination of them – guarantees you goals.
Plus we have really tough away games after Everton also, Including wolves, Leicester City, wolves and Watford. Hoping we have a fully fit squad and get maximum points in these games.
To be fair, we only have beaten the 3 relegation teams + Bmouth and Newcastle away from home this season so far.
We really need to step it up big time in order to stay in TOP4!
I think we only play at Wolves one time. If we have to play there twice, I will complain vociferously on the internet.
Glad to hear Ramsey’s taking off was nothing more serious!
Hope not. We’re going to miss him when he’s gone. Juventus have got one of the deals of the decade.
Steady.
It’s ridiculous that Emery feels forced to give an explanation about his team selection after every match. He picks the team he thinks is most capable of getting the result. Just like every manager, he’ll make mistakes, but him being questioned on every player choice by online fans and the media has become very boring.
Totally disagree, I think the fact he’s open about it is what encourages the questions, and I find it refreshing that he gives straight answers.
Maybe he watches AFTV.
He won’t understand a thing but maybe he’s trying to improve his English form the likes of Troopz.
That lot all too willing to throw the toys out of the pram in December when they had mentioned before that they were willing to give the new gaffer 3 seasons in europa.
How the tune changes.
What lies, there were more whinging here about Emery here than at AFTV (where all the whinging there was from non regulars which were few and far between) during the winter. Even Arseblog joined in here and said he would be very surprised if Emery is a stopgap and he won’t achieve much with us during one of the Arsecast.
Stop spreading misinformation.
I love Troopz fam, you get me? Even blud Auba does.
At the same time, the little change compared to Wenger is in that area. He tells what he does.
Be careful what you wish for ???
Hopefully nothing more sinister than Cramps for Ramsey. He does have a knack for injury. That said if he can stay fit, he looks like a real asset in deep midfield to end of season for us next to Granit. As for Aubameyang, I see nothing wrong in varying our approach play in the final third. Lacazette supported with ‘wide men’ in Iwobi and Ozil (or say Mhkitaryan) is one way to break teams down. The inverted triangle with Auba and Laca supported by Ozil (or Ramsey) is another. With the latter, we have more presence in the box as… Read more »
Problem with AMN is that he gets caught out too often playing in a back 4. He’s fine as a wingback.