Mikel Arteta has claimed that Arsenal players were ‘trying too hard’ to help Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang this afternoon.
The Gunners finished their season with a narrow 3-2 win over Watford at the Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal didn’t have much left to play for except for pride, but Aubameyang did.
The Gabon international went into the game knowing that he needed a hat-trick to tie with Jamie Vardy in the Golden Boot stakes, an award he won last season and shared with a couple of other players.
But despite his best efforts, the former Borussia Dortmund hitman, who could scored twice, finished one behind the Leicester City man on 23.
Aubameyang had two goals by the 33rd-minute, but couldn’t find a third and Arteta claims that his Arsenal team-mates were exerting themselves a bit too much to try and set him up.
He told Football London after the game: “You could see he was really trying, sometimes his team-mates were trying too hard to get him a goal.”
Golden Boot or not, it’s been another phenomenal season in regards to goals for Aubameyang, who now has 54 in 85 Premier League games.
It’s an exceptional return and serves to underline why it’s so important that Arsenal keep the 31-year-old – who has one year left on his contract – for the long term.
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