'Much sharper' Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang backed to shine for Arsenal against Manchester City

James Benge25 February 2018

Arsene Wenger is convinced a “much sharper” Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is ready to shine after two weeks out of the Arsenal side.

Record signing Aubameyang has not played since a 1-0 defeat to Tottenham at Wembley on February 10 but will return to the national stadium to lead the line against Manchester City in this afternoon’s EFL Cup Final.

Aubameyang scored on his debut, a 5-1 rout of Everton, but struggled to make a similar impact against Spurs, where he was often caught offside and did not register a single shot on goal.

As he is ineligible of the Europa League Aubameyang has missed Arsenal’s last two games but Wenger believes the time away from the pitch has allowed the 28-year-old to sharpen up.

“He has only played twice but on the other hand when he came here he had not played for a while,” said Wenger. “He was not at his best physically and we took advantage of the last two weeks to build him up physically.

“I think he will be much sharper than he was. You could see day after day that he is much sharper than he was two or three weeks ago.”

With only two appearances to his name at his new club Aubameyang is still developing his understanding with his new team-mates ahead of the clash with Manchester City.

His cause will not be aided by the absence of former Borussia Dortmund colleague Henrikh Mkhitaryan, ineligible for the EFL Cup Final after playing for Manchester United earlier in the competition.

But Wenger believes Aubameyang’s runs are good enough that Arsenal should be able to exploit them.

“I think his great strengths are his finishing, the quality of his runs and his pace, of course,” Wenger said.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang signs for Arsenal - In pictures

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“Our target on Sunday will be to find him two or three times each half in dangerous positions because he is sharp now.

“The handicap is that we have not played a lot with him but his runs are so clever that I think we have players who can find him.”

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