Izuchukwu OkosiFormer Arsenal captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang insists he is “a Blue now” and his affinity in the last as the Chelsea star prepares to face Arsenal for the first time since his controversial exit.
The former Gunner left the Emirates back in January in bizzare circumstances after being frozen out of the first-team. The club’s hierarchy elected to terminate his contract after Mikel Arteta reprimanded the player for a disciplinary issue. That allowed Aubameyang to move to Barcelona before returning in the summer to link up with Chelsea.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThe Gabonese has already scored three times for the west Londoners and will be hoping to further make his mark against his former club when he faces them on Sunday. Arsenal have excelled since Aubameyang’s departure but the Gabon international claims it will be “fun” to come up against the Gunners.
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The former African Footballer of The Year winner told BT Sport : “Yes, definitely a very exciting game and also because they are doing well at the moment. Yeah, before I was on the other side and of course I have some memories of a few games I played against Chelsea now it’s going to be so much different.
“But hopefully we can win this game and we play at home so I think it’s going to be really exciting and yeah, I’m looking forward to it. It’s a big week coming and we will try to give everything to make the most of it. The first game is at home against Arsenal I think it’s going to be fun for sure.”
Aubameyang was previously Arsenal’s leading light and scored twice in the FA Cup final back in 2020 which delivered Arteta’s first trophy as a manager. The 33-year-old was previously the club’s captain but was stripped of the armband before he was ushered out the exit door.
Despite that he maintains he is still the sort of individual who Chelsea’s younger players can learn from. “I try to always give advice you know. I’m not a guy who will speak when cameras are there but I do my job secretly,” he added.
“The best thing you can do when you are an experienced player is make the young players fully comfortable in the dressing room and I try to be as cool as possible and I had a warm welcome so I’m doing well at the moment.”
Blues boss Graham Potter has attempted to cool any Aubameyang vs Arsenal subplots by saying: “I don’t think we should make it about him. It’s about the team and he’s an important part of the team for us to get the result we want but it takes everybody.
“I understand the headlines are about him because it’s Arsenal and there’s a narrative around that. There’s nothing we can do about that other than to try as a team to play well.”
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
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