Aubameyang is dropped

Mikel Arteta has revealed that Arsenal captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will sit out of Saturday’s clash with Southampton after another disciplinary issue. 

The Gunners skipper is without a goal in six Premier League games and talk of a rift between captain and manager has linked the striker with an imminent exit.

‘Unfortunately due to a disciplinary breach,’ Arteta said, explaining Aubameyang’s absence on the Emirates team-sheet. 

The skipper was benched at Goodison Park on Monday and only saw five minutes of action after replacing Alexandre Lacazette in a late substitution. 

Eddie Nketiah, 22, even came on six minutes earlier than the Gabon international, who duly missed a huge late chance to level.   

In the match at Old Trafford day earlier, Aubameyang was taken off for his French pal Lacazette with 11 minutes to play as Arteta looked elsewhere in the Gunners’ late hunt for an equaliser.   

Aubameyang has a history of misdemeanours at Arsenal, even since donning the armband. He was even benched and fined after showing up late for the north London derby earlier this season.   

Arteta is determined to fix Arsenal’s culture of failure that has seen them slide from the Champions League qualification race to mid-table since Arsene Wenger left, but the captain hasn’t quite got the message yet. 

Aubameyang is dropped

The 32-year-old missed last season’s 2-1 win against local rivals Tottenham Hotspur after arriving late to a team meeting before Arteta opted to drop him from the starting XI – but did keep him in the matchday squad.

Aubameyang was reportedly disciplined earlier in the 2020/21 campaign for missing a COVID-19 test before a European trip and was also thought to have been ‘reminded of his responsibilities’ by the club for breaching COVID-19 regulations to get a tattoo in February of this year.