da bwin： This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…
da cassino online： Whilst Wednesday night’s draw to Vitória represented yet another disappointing on-field performance from Arsenal in the 2019/20 campaign, manager Unai Emery must take a degree of responsibility for a considerable mistake on his part in the Europa League clash.
Shkodran Mustafi rose highest to meet Nicolas Pepe’s free-kick in the 80th minute, but the Gunners appeared devoid of confidence, with the German centre-back’s header their first shot on target of the whole game.
In a week where Emery had made the decision to strip Granit Xhaka of the Arsenal captaincy and hand it to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, the fixture against Vitória represented the perfect opportunity for the Gabonese forward to take over the armband and lead his side to victory against seemingly inferior opposition.
Yet the decision from the Arsenal boss to fully rest the Gabonese forward and not even take him to Portugal points to a manager who seems out of touch with the intricacies of motivation and management; the opportunity to set a precedent for the era of Aubameyang’s captaincy from the outset missed by Emery.
Given the testing league fixture that the north London side will encounter on Saturday, coming up against the high-flying Foxes under the management of Brendan Rodgers, victory seems unlikely in Aubameyang’s first league game as captain of the club; certainly on current form.
Yet had the former Borrusia Dortmund man travelled for the Europa League game, playing and captaining his side, this could have represented a shrewd move from Emery for reasons that stretch beyond the quality of Arsenal’s football: this was a chance to send a statement to both the club’s fanbase and its critics that the decision to remove Xhaka’s captaincy has galvanised the squad.
But a 1-1 draw and an underwhelming performance on foreign soil is likely to only further intensify calls for Emery to depart The Emirates, with Saturday’s league fixture holding the potential to make it just four wins in 12 league games for the Spaniard.
Aubameyang could emerge as an outstanding captaincy option with innate leadership qualities, but the striker’s task of picking back up a side who have experienced another deflating result will be a true test of his ability to energise this Arsenal side. After all, he’s their top scorer this season.
But there can be no doubting that Emery’s decision for the forward not to travel, and to hand the captaincy to Rob Holding, marks yet another mistake in missing an opportunity to build some much-needed momentum in the Gunners’ bid to salvage their 2019/20 campaign.