‘It was vital’: Kevin Phillips shares what Arsenal had to achieve against West Brom last night

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Kevin Phillips told Sky Sports (25/8, 22:08) after Arsenal beat West Brom in the Carabao Cup that it was vital they get on the scoresheet after two defeats to start the season.

The 1999/2000 European Golden Boot winner also believes it was important that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang proved himself as the man for manager Mikel Arteta. The Gabon striker had failed to score across the Gunners’ pre-season and is yet to score in the league.

Aubameyang missed Arsenal’s season-opener at Brentford after testing positive for Covid-19, and only featured from the bench against Chelsea. Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup tie at The Hawthorns marked the 32-year-old’s first competitive start of the campaign.

Aubameyang also got his season off the mark against West Brom to open the scoring for Arsenal after 17 minutes. He soon doubled his record with another tap-in, before curling a well-placed shot into goalkeeper Alex Palmer’s far corner.

Phillips now wants to see Aubameyang build on his West Brom hat-trick and be the man for Arsenal this season. As too often last term, the £250,000-per-week was not leading the line as he should. And that is now increasingly important after the Gunners’ sluggish start.

“Arsenal do make mistakes, but having had two games previously and not scored, it was vital that they got on the scoresheet,” Phillips said. “And the key is their best marksman is Aubameyang, he’s got to be that man and we didn’t really see that much last season. But that was a great striker’s goal [for his first]”

Can Aubameyang be the ‘man’ for Arsenal again after West Brom treble?

Aubameyang’s hat-trick against West Brom equates to one-fifth of his total 15-goal haul for Arsenal in 39 appearances last season. Of those, 10 came in the Premier League, plus three in the Europa League. But the Gunners captain also failed to find the net after the Last 32.

They would reach the semi-final before losing 2-1 on aggregate to Villarreal, drawing their home leg with a scoreless draw. Aubameyang also scored just once over the last six games of the league campaign, as Arsenal missed out on qualifying for any European competition.

There is grounds for Phillips’ claim of Aubameyang not always being the man for Arsenal like he was against West Brom, then. Arteta will now hope he uses the midweek rout as a springboard and carries the form into facing Manchester City. Who reports link him with.