Head coach Mikel Arteta and Arsenal have been handed a massive boost with the news that next year's AFCON tournament has been postponed.
The competition, which sees Africa's biggest footballing countries come together, was set to take place in Cameroon in January, but it has now been postponed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Whilst this will be a blow to the supporters of countries who would have been participating in the tournament, it will be good news for a plethora of Premier League managers, who, of course, have their fair share on players within their squads that would have been flocking to the tournament.
Instead, the competition will now be staged the following year.
This, of course, is significant news for Arsenal and Arteta, who face Norwich City at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday evening, as it means they will not be forced to losing Nicolas Pepe and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang at a crucial stage of the season, with the duo almost certain to be called up by the Ivory Coast and Gabon, respectively.
Admittedly, at the time of writing it is not yet known whether or not Aubameyang will still be an Arsenal player by the time next January rolls around, with plenty of uncertainty surrounding his future, as he is yet to show any signs that he will be putting pen to paper on a new deal at the Emirates Stadium.
Aubameyang, who has scored 17 times in the Premier League this season, is out-of-contract at the end of the 2020/21 campaign, meaning Arsenal, if they are unsuccessful in their attempts to persuade him to sign a new deal, could be forced to sell him before next January to avoid losing him on a free-transfer.
Speaking earlier this month about Aubameyang's future, Arteta explained: “We have had many discussions with Pierre, his family and his agent, and I am pretty positive we can find the right agreement for all parties.
"I think it’s our responsibility to make him feel this is the right next step in his career. In order to do that he needs to feel valued.
“I think he needs to feel he belongs to us and we want him, and then he really needs to believe we can take this club forward the way we want to and that he’s going to be a key player to do that.
“At the moment I’m extremely happy with how he’s been performing and behaving, I think I have a really good relationship with him and we can discuss face to face a lot of things. As far as I’m aware he is very happy at the club.”
