LONDON – Pre-match messages for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang but we know now he’s not the only one listening.
Mikel Arteta decides to strip Aubameyang of captaincy dominate the construction Arsenalgame of against West Ham United on Wednesday and could have a divisive effect given the striker’s popularity on the team. However, it has had the opposite effect, spurring this young group to produce one of their most complete performances of the season for the money. win 2-0, climbs to the top four and offers an interesting look at what life without Aubameyang might have been like.
“They were completely focused,” Arteta said after the game. “They want to show how strong we are as a team. The performance, attitude and commitment they showed today is exactly what we are as a club.
“I expect that from every player: stay true to our values. We’ll talk about that another day. Today I want to talk about the game.”
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Not long ago, Aubameyang was carrying a disjointed Arsenal team on his shoulders. Arteta’s predecessor, Unai Emery, will almost certainly be sacked earlier than November 2019 if Aubameyang has not been in high form in front of goal up to that point.
However, after a series of disciplinary problems and a slump in form, Arteta demoted the 32-year-old on Tuesday citing a lack of “commitment and passion” along with “a number of times where he failed to fulfill its duty.”
Commitment and passion are in abundance on Wednesdays. The Emirates Stadium crowd can sometimes be an unforgiving mass, but they reacted to the application showing that Arsenal pressed West Ham relentlessly for mistakes during an easy first half that somehow ended without a goal at the end of the game.
Aubameyang’s willingness to pressure is often questioned, but Gabriel Martinelli, Alexandre Lacazette and Bukayo Saka take the lead in that regard.
And Martinelli’s 48th-minute opener bore a lot of resemblance to Aubameyang’s slick dribble, drifting to the left to catch Lacazette’s cross before slamming a right-footed shot past the former Arsenal keeper. Lukasz Fabianski. There are even marks of Thierry Henry on how Martinelli opened his body to clinical end but, hey, one step at a time.
Proving a reliable replacement for Aubameyang would be an extremely valuable starting place for Martinelli. An abundance of energy with and without the ball, the 20-year-old made four tackles – second only to the excellent Lacazette (five) – Martinelli’s seventh Premier League The goal makes him the highest scoring Brazilian before the age of 21 in the history of the tournament behind City of Manchester‘S Gabriel Jesus (16).
“It’s definitely one of those [his best performances] in every aspect of the game, “Arteta talks about Martinelli.” Physically, he’s growing. He’s cramped again and he needs to grow up in that sense, too.
“But his general understanding of the game is getting better and better, he’s able to put some gear in his play, instead of sometimes doing things at 100 mph. Energy and The quality he shows is sometimes top-notch.”
Anything less than a win on this night will put Arteta’s authority in doubt and put pressure on the Spaniard to find his way back into the team for Aubameyang, who has scored 58 Premier League goals. League since the beginning of the 2018-19 season. Instead, this match feels similar to mid-March, when Arteta knocked out Aubameyang at the last minute after the Gabon international reported late to a team meeting on the day of the north London derby and his team had responded with an impressive 2-1 victory in a performance of similar vitality.
However, what happens next can provide an important history lesson. The Gunners have won two of their next nine games in all competitions, a match that gives the sense that Aubameyang’s peripheral role is being re-examined.
This time, they have to face Leeds United next – beat Manchester City 7-0 on Tuesday – Sunderland in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup, Norwich City And after that Wolverhampton Wanderers before New Year’s Day. This is a fascinating program that offers the opportunity to create more momentum and shift focus to Aubameyang to match the focus and diligence surrounding him if he wants to revive his fortunes in north London. .
Despite Arsenal’s dominance, the match was not very safe until the last minutes. The home team benefits from a light penalty decision when Vladimir Coufal seemed to win the ball from Lacazette with a tackle from inside the box, although it is worth noting that West Ham manager David Moyes later suggested the defender should have been more assertive in his tackle.
Lacazette missed the third consecutive penalty that Arsenal squandered away – but the damage was still huge for the Hammers as Coufal was sent off and led to a numerical disadvantage.
To replace Emile Smith Rowe finally killed the visitors three minutes later with another brilliant finish, erring Fabianski with a left-footed shot after Saka’s cross. It was the 10th league goal Arsenal have scored by a player aged 21 or under, the highest any team has achieved this season.
The fury towards Aubameyang has overshadowed the importance of this match before given the Hammers’ fine form under Moyes and Arteta’s somewhat fragile progress being made by Arsenal. It should also be remembered that Aubameyang was initially appointed captain after winning a player’s vote. His popularity is such that a poor performance could be seen as a sign of displeasure over one of Arteta’s boldest decisions of his managerial career to date.
Instead, they delivered one of the best performances of the season. They responded to Arteta’s call. Time will tell if that continues – and whether Aubameyang can do the same.
