Arsenal legend Ian Wright has urged Mikel Arteta to “kill” any speculation surrounding Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s future.
The Gabon international was stripped of the captaincy at the north London club following a disciplinary breach.
Arteta has not confirmed whether or not Aubameyang is in his plans, refusing to give anything away when questioned by the media.
Arsenal take the strange hint from West Ham in watershed win
The striker missed Arsenal’s 2-0 win against West Ham on Wednesday and Arteta did not reveal if he will be selected for Saturday’s trip to Leeds.
He said: “He wasn’t eligible for this game and that’s it. This game is gone. We will discuss it in the near future.”
The Spanish manager also insisted the players remained “fully focused” on the West Ham match, not allowing themselves to become distracted by the situation.
“They were fully focused,” Arteta added. “They wanted to show how strong we are as a team. The performance, the attitude and the commitment they showed today is exactly what we are as a club.
“I expect it from every player – to stick to our values. We will talk about that another day. Today I want to talk about the game.”
Club icon Wright was not impressed by Arteta’s comments, claiming the Arsenal boss could have ‘killed’ any talk of a fall-out.
“He’s just not entertaining anything to do with Aubameyang and I totally understand when he says he just wants to concentrate on what happened today and he doesn’t want to talk about it,” Wright told Premier League Productions (quotes via the Mirror).
“But I don’t think you can continue to avoid it, especially in the way that it has come about. At some stage you’re going to have to quash it or talk about it.
“He’s got the capability of killing it and saying, ‘Yeah, he’s in the plans and he’s an Arsenal player’, and he didn’t do it.”
Wright added: “It’s going to be talked about again, they will mention it again for the next game. And then if he’s not in the next game… so he can kill it, that’s all I’m saying. Kill it.”
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