Arsenal captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was left out of the squad for their 3-1 Premier League win over Southampton on Saturday for “discipline reasons” but coach Mikel Arteta refused to reveal what the striker had done.
Aubameyang signed a three-year contract with Arsenal last year, but he has struggled this season and scored only four goals in the Premier League, the last of which was against Aston Villa last October.
And Arteta told the BBC: “Breach of disciplinary rules, that applies to everyone, you can’t negotiate on this and when it happens he’s out of the team, no matter what happened in the dressing room I can’t publish what happened.” I’ll tell you the reason is that I can’t lie and on my part I won’t say what he did.”
Before the match, the 39-year-old coach hinted that Aubameyang might miss more matches due to the disciplinary problem, and the Spanish coach said: The penalty starts today, it is certainly not an easy situation for the captain.
Aubameyang was previously excluded for disciplinary reasons when he left Gabon striker Arteta from the squad in the 2-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur in the north London derby last season.
It seemed that the Arsenal players did not miss their teammate, and Arsenal advanced with two goals in the first 20 minutes on their way to ensuring an easy victory.
Arsenal moved up with this result to fifth place with 26 points from 16 games, while Southampton remains in 16th place with 16 points.
