Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has admitted that he wanted to celebrate by wearing the Black Panther mask before he eventually did against Rennes in last season's Europa League campaign.
Having frequently donned Batman and Spider-Man masks upon scoring for Borussia Dortmund, expectation had been building for his first masked celebration as an Arsenal player at the time.
Very secretive about what was going on, however, it wasn't until he reached over the advertising hoardings after his second goal of the night that even his teammates knew what he had planned.
"Nobody knew," Alexandre Lacazette told Ian Wright on his YouTube channel.
Initially, however, this wasn't supposed to be the first time Aubameyang sent the Emirates into a frenzy with his unorthodox celebration.
Arsenal had played Manchester United just four days earlier and with Champions League and Europa League places still on the line, the importance of the game was high at the time. So much so that the now-Arsenal captain had planned to bring out the Blank Panther mask once he'd slid his second half penalty past David de Gea that afternoon.
"I used Paul [Arsenal's kitman]. I put the mask [there] the game before against Manchester United because I wanted to score against United," Aubameyang admitted.
"I don't know but somebody took it and put it on a different area. So after the penaltly against Manchester United, I come and watch [it wasn't there] and I'm like 'Okay!' [laughs]."
Aubameyang has not celebrated an Arsenal goal by pulling on a mask since but has not let up in front of goal, pushing himself up to ninth in the club's top goalscorer in the Premier League [49 goals].
This season he has been responsible for 42.5% of the Gunners goals alone and with most of these contributions coming off the left flank, his importance to the side has been unquestionable.
Despite this his future at the club is still in doubt as he is yet to extend his current deal which expires in 2021.
