Paul Merson questioned on Soccer Special (29/12/20 at 5:30 pm start) why Mikel Arteta opted to start Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang during Arsenal’s 1-0 win at Brighton on Tuesday.
Arsenal’s main man returned to the starting XI after missing a number of games through injury and replacing Alexandre Lacazette in the starting XI.
Whilst Aubameyang would still be considered as a key man for the Gunners, he has been bang out of form and only returned to action last night, with his performance showing just that.
Nonetheless, Merson felt that Arteta could have made a ‘statement’ to the rest of the squad by putting Aubameyang on the bench rather than starting him against the Seagulls.
“That would have been a massive statement tonight,” said Merson. “If I am the manager, and it doesn’t seem to be all going well there at Arsenal with results recently. What a statement, pick that team [that started v Chelsea], Aubameyang wasn’t ready, they win the game and you [Auba] are sub.
“All the players then start going ‘woah, I like this’. This is the problem. You start losing the players. Lacazette is thinking ‘wait there a minute, Aubameyang is getting another chance’. I know he is a good player but everyone has a dip in form.
“And it [would have been] a statement [to put Aubameyang on the bench] – but, at the moment, if I am a player and I am in the dressing room everyone will be going ‘Oh, this is a joke’. And that’s the way it goes. It doesn’t matter how good you are. It’s all on form. I just thought it’s a bad decision this.”
Six months ago, such a conversation wouldn’t have taken place because Aubameyang was ripping it up left, right and centre.
But during this current campaign, the £56 million hitman [BBC Sport] has looked the shadow of the player that carried the team to the FA Cup in the summer.
His performance against Brighton illustrated that, but in truth, the only way the Gabon star can get back to form is by being on the pitch
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