Mikel Arteta made a huge decision before Arsenal’s visit of Slavia Prague in the Europa League last night.
The Arsenal boss benched his captain and talisman Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who had a difficult performance against Liverpool last weekend.
Aubameyang almost single-handedly fired the Gunners to FA Cup glory last season but 14 goals in all competitions this time around indicates that he is majorly struggling to recapture the sort of form that he showed under Unai Emery and Arsene Wenger prior to Arteta’s arrival in December of 2019.
And for the second time in five games, the Spaniard, who also dropped the 31-year-old hitman for the win over Tottenham Hotspur last month, refused to name Aubameyang in his first XI.
Thing is, the decision didn’t really pan out for the Emirates Stadium side on this occasion.
Prague have a narrow advantage after scoring a last-minute equaliser in North London to take an away goal back to the Czech Republic with them next Thursday.
Aubameyang did come off the bench eventually and set up Nicolas Pepe for what looked like the winner, but the questions will be whether Arteta should have included him in the starting lineup.
Here’s how some Arsenal fans reacted to his omission last night:
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