After watching his side beat Southampton 3-0, Mikel Arteta was in no mood to expand on the details of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s “disciplinary breach” that saw the Arsenal captain excluded from the matchday squad.
The Athletic reports this evening that Aubameyang returned late from a sanctioned trip abroad and that the knock-on effect on the club’s Covid-19 protocols meant the matter couldn’t be ignored.
If true, it’s not the first time the striker’s tardiness has earned him a ticking off. The 32-year-old was dropped for the north London derby last season after getting stuck in traffic on the way to the game.
When the details of David Ornstein’s report were put to Arteta in his post-game press conference, he said: “It was a disciplinary breach and that’s why he was out of the squad.”
Pressed on whether his main goal threat remains captain, he added:
“Let’s talk about the game, guys. I’ve tried to explain what it was and I did it frankly. I’m not going to say anything else. I’m going to focus on the performance and what the team has done on the pitch.
“I’m really happy that we won 3-0 and we move onto the next one against West Ham, you’re not going to get anything else from me. Unfortunately, it happened.”
In Auba’s absence, Alex Lacazette took the armband and opened the scoring before Martin Odegaard, with his head, netted a third goal in the space on 10 days.
Arteta was pleased with the contribution of both men.
“He [Odegaard] should have scored a hat-trick against Everton,” said Arteta of the Norwegian.
“He’s getting into the box much more and now he’s understanding why we encourage him to do that because then he’s a matchwinner.
“That’s the difference between a really good player and a matchwinner and we need more of those players on the pitch to win more games.”
On Lacazette, he added: “I was really happy with him, he has done everything we asked him to do in the game.
“First of all he has come in and his defensive actions were top, and then the way he linked in, the way he understood the spaces and the threat that he was in the box.
“That’s why he scored the goal and he had opportunities to do that. He really affected the team and I am really pleased with him.”
Auba needs to be sent packing quite honestly. Just grinning like a idiot, missing sitters, cash in on him and let’s get a hungry striker
Cash in on him? Can’t think of many clubs in the market for a 350k a week striker who is fading physically, can’t score from six yards and has disciplinary problems.
They could buy his contract out
Newcastle?
I think they might still be pissed about Joe Willock…
Why would they be pissed
Because he’s proved to be bang average.
He hasn’t been “bang average”, his role has changed this season. He’s gone from playing as a roaming midfielder in a midfield three to a defensive midfielder in double pivot. It’s like going from being ESR to being Sambi. Have you actually bothered to watch the lad?
He’s still in the top end of their team for interceptions, tackles, recoveries and chances created. He is their most successful player for dribbling and ball progression after Saint-Maximin.
Quality. Still can’t believe we got 25 million for him 😂
Yep it was great piece of business by Arteta and Edu to sell Willock and use the funds towards recruiting Odegaard.
I’m still pissed that so many Arsenal fans used the Willock sale as a stick to beat the club with last summer.
There’ll be suitors I’m sure. Either his heart and mind not in it or he’s still not over covid
Barcelona
He also dances like a clown. Doesn’t take this club seriously, never has.
Disrespectful 🙁
I guess a lot of people like his dancing.
Barca could be tempted if we take a couple of their big earners? auba may know he won’t get the same money elsewhere but a little less in his pocket now over a longer period maybe?
Dembele and sergi roberto swap for auba?
if we can get them to take a small pay cut from their current wages we would actually break even. They are on £290k and £130k respectively apparently. So I’d hope we could knock off £40kpw from dembele and end up paying less wages!
don’t know how Barca would feel or auba tbh, but if he took a £50k hit on his wages they’d be saving £70k PW!
(money is funny in a rich mans world ey ABBA)
dunno about Dembele and Sergi Roberto, but multiple sources saying Frenkie de Jong is on the transfer list. He’s previously mentioned his love for arsenal, i know it’s far fetched but who doesn’t take an Auba-Frenkie swap? He’d be the perfect ball progressing cm for us. Pricey but … Oof … a gal can dream
Coutinho swap Barca, similar ages / wages
Or
Juventus for Ramsey!?
With Real Madrid for Bale! That would annoy some tots..
What you guys think..
When I looked at their salaries etc I thought no way would they let him go, one of their younger guys who is on a relatively low wage for them.
Get your bets in now, with Aguero retirement they need a cf and have money spare from his wages
The thing about the Aubameyang situation that I dont really understand is the necessity to do the whole thing in public? Mikel has previous for doing it with a fair few players and it never really works in his favour. The players that he throws under the bus publicly their form tends to nose dive even further, Pepe, Leno and Guendouzi spring to mind. I also dont particularly like how it seems to be some rules for others, and then his little cohort of favourites get away with whatever they like basically. I remember when Pepe got sent off against… Read more »
It’s hard to keep anything under wraps when the players and their friends are all over Instagram. Everything ends up in the public domain. Arteta would have made a fool of himself by saying he was ill. Why lie to protect aubameyangs feelings when he knows the truth will be posted online within hours. Aubameyang is a 32 year old man, if he showed up on time for his 350k a week job there wouldn’t be any situation to deal with.
Well now the truth came out… man was late coming back from visiting his sick mother. I get what he did might be wrong but holy what horrible management from Arteta.
He’s right to call him out. Sends a message. Not the first time it’s happened. Unacceptable behavior…and from the club captain! Enough is enough.
I’d hugely like to say here it’s a bit too late to try and reprimand any of unacceptable behaviour from players when we have literally handed the guy a brand new contract who threw the Arsenal shirt down, and the armband whilst walking off down the tunnel.
The behavioural problems go a lot deeper than Aubameyang
I hate it when Arteta is praising his strikers, and the first thing he mentions is their defensive work. Sometimes he makes it seem like that’s what he wants most from them
The hardest thing to do is to get the strikers to focus on their defensive work – which is vital. So, of course, you praise it.
I thought the hardest thing is to put the ball in the net…isn’t that what everybody says?
World class strikers don’t get big contracts because of their defensive work
Shocking.
Wow! City, Liverpool, United and Chelsea all win today by a single goal and all 4 are pena!ties! Crazy…
I’ve heard of some of these teams you mention, but who are United?
“We have to talk about Pierre Emerick”
If Auba continues to be the Capitan and role model then Arteta is the fool and at fault.
The problem is he can’t be just stripped off the captaincy just like that
And why not?
You must make a great boss.
We have the youngest average age team out. If we are investing in them for the future, don’t we want a capitan who is a good role model? This is not his first time and won’t be his last time acting unprofessional. What message does that send to Saka, ESR and the rest?
Why does everything have to be an extreme?
If he has broken some rules, he takes a punishment. End of the matter.
No need for this justice boner some people have, that every slight must be the end of the world. I trust Arteta to reprimand Auba for his breach, then let’s move on a fucking play football and try to improve.
Credit to Odegaard, he’s started scoring recently. Wish we could be this dominant more often. Whatever Auba’s done it must be pretty bad for him to miss two games. Could be a proper falling out. The worry is that we have £120 million invested in two players who now aren’t playing. But if that brings results then so be it.
It could also just be the perfectly convenient opportunity to bench his ass.
Terrible run of form + behavior requiring discipline = perfect time to give the starts to someone else.
Seriously. Can we just get a captain that doesn’t knob off!?
Good game today. Played at a much better Tempo. Ramsdale is just an amazing goalie. Hopefully all the Leno sympathisers can now see what we were missing. Thought the front 4 were excellent. Interconnections were night and day to the last month. Good midfield preformance. Xhaka was good, but doesn’t change the fact he shouldn’t be starting ahead of lokonga. Défense was good after an iffy first 20mins. Overall a good result… DESPERATELY needed.
I doubt bigger teams will allow us to have so much of the ball as we did today in the 2nd half. But if we’d played even 30% of this against United we would have had the 3 points from that game. Great result today, but I still haven’t been able to get over the United match.
Yeah the last two games were a massive disappointment. We really need a run here…
I know KT is a shoe in for captain but why not ramsdale, by all accounts he is the perfect captain.
Eventually I could see it, but he’s already plenty confident (in a good way). I wouldn’t want to push that too quickly.
Also, I know it’s done, but a captain that’s stuck at one end of the pitch can be a detriment.
Yeah keeper captains are a bit marmite, but it gives the advantage of never worrying about having to leave him out tactically. And with the amount of football we seem to be playing in our own 3rd it doesn’t seem to matter that the captain is there!
the other advantage is that he is watching the whole came in front of him!
Aubameyang was a strange pick for captain, Tierney gabriel ramsdale all better candidates.
He’s paid a shit tonne of money, the least you can do is make bloody connections and turn up to things on time. Once it’s excusable, but this is now repeat offences. It’s not good enough.
It wasn’t once mate, he probably done it a few time before the spurs game . Arteta had enough and made it public. I would guess it’s the same thing this time. If arteta wants to make it public, it’s not the 1st time. No way he wants to deal with it through the media otherwise.
Like to know his running stats as he appears to put in a shift every game, ok he’s not been as prolific goal wise this season but every top striker has a dip (Kane,Sterling) obviously his excuse of I had to take my sick cat to the vets held no water.. Miki or cat wise, early days to get rid of our captain as he’s still a top player but a leftfield vote for armband goes to our player of the year so far the one with his gloves on..
Aubameyang hasn’t been the same player since he signed his contract. I think he is past his best. He will still get us goals from to time but I don’t think he will ever again be prolific. He also offer the kind of skill set that can be used elsewhere.
We have a lot of captain material in the team now. Ramsdale, White, Tierney and even Gabriel.. So let’s make the change now! Saka, Odegard, Tavares are not far behind..
Your 1st choice yes as for the rest………
Tierney is a shoe-in for Captain. If he doesnt become at least a vice captain in the next 2 seasons, i’ll be amazed.
If attitude behavior and work ethic are the principle attributes of a captain, both fullbacks display a lot more of it than aubameyang.
Once upon a time, arsenal fans almost skinned Edu and Arteta for selling Willock and signing Odegaard