Mikel Arteta believes the in-form Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is leaning towards staying at Arsenal after playing a significant role in the team’s uplift.
Aubameyang scored twice in Sunday’s 3-2 win over Everton, which lifted Arsenal within three points of sixth-placed Tottenham and brought up 10 games unbeaten. The club captain has scored six times in nine appearances since Arteta took over in December, continuing to perform consistently despite doubts over his future. His contract ends next summer and there have been strong suggestions he would favour a fresh challenge, but Arteta senses a change in his viewpoint.
“Hopefully not just the wins, but as well what we are trying to do,” Arteta said when asked if improved results might increase the likelihood of Aubameyang staying. “That he really enjoys on the pitch every time he goes, that he feels very much part of what we’re trying to build here. And I think he’s with that mindset at the moment.
“I think it’s been tough for him. You know a player like him, there’s been a lot of disappointments in the last few months and years because he has big expectations. You know he wants to play for the biggest club in the biggest tournaments, and be up there with the best players in the world. And we have to try to support him and give him everything at the club so he really feels fulfilled here. That’s the challenge I have.”
While Aubameyang may have had misgivings about his future, Arteta explained that he also had some concerns about the player when he took over. “I had two questions,” he said. “One was he doesn’t want to do it or he cannot do it physically, so once I found out that physically he could do it, it was just about convincing him that he needs to do it every three days and he is doing that.
“He needs to feel fulfilled. When he does that, we show our appreciation as well of what he is doing because he can say: ‘I score the goals, I don’t need to do it’. But unfortunately we are not that good that we can allow a few players not to do that.”
Carlo Ancelotti was frustrated Everton had made life too easy for Aubameyang and his teammates during a sometimes frantic encounter. “I cannot say the performance was good; to be good you have to attack well and with it you have to defend well, and we didn’t,” he said. “The good thing about this game is that we are really clear on what we have to work on.”
