I’m on par with Kane and Salah
PIERRE-EMERICK Aubameyang has warned his Golden Boot rivals his best is yet to come.
The Arsenal striker shot to the top of the scoring charts with his brace in Sunday’s 4-2 win over Tottenham.
Aubameyang has 10 Premier League goals this season – from 10 shots on target – but insists he is still not at his best.
“I’m not at 100 per cent but it’s coming, and today I felt very good on the pitch,” he said. “I’m really happy because my best form is coming. I don’t know if I can win the Golden Boot. It’s early in the season. I know that we have good strikers in the league so it will be tough.
“But I’m happy that we won. The most important, as I always said, is the team. Am I on the same level as Harry Kane, Sergio Aguero, Mo Salah? I hope so. I think so.”
Aubameyang has 20 goals in 27 league games since his £56m move from Borussia Dortmund in January. That is despite often being forced to play wide to accommodate Alexandre Lacazette, though Sunday’s strikes came after he was restored to his favourite position.
“I prefer it, of course. I think everybody knows it,” Aubameyang said. “I like to play up front but I know that I can help the team. Sometimes the coach puts me on the left side but centre-forward is my favourite position.”
After years of tearing apart defences in Germany, the Gabon striker has taken to English football like a duck to water. And team-mate Sokratis, who played with Aubameyang at Dortmund, is not surprised.
“He’s a great player,” said the centre-back. “Am I surprised he’s settled in so quickly in England? No, because he’s a good player, and if you also have good players around you in a good team it’s not so difficult.”
Asked whether he expected to adapt so quickly, Aubameyang said: “Yes, of course, because the team helped me to settle in. It’s gone well. This was my best day in an Arsenal shirt.”
The Gunners are likely to be without Mesut Ozil when they face Manchester United tomorrow. He has not featured in Arsenal’s past three games and manager Unai Emery said: “I don’t know if he can play in Manchester. He has been working alone.”
Ozil was absent from the enthralling and controversial north London derby, with Emery saying he was suffering from back pain.
But Spurs midfielder Eric Dier heralded a return to the days of derbies past. “The nice thing about the game is that it felt like a derby again,” he said.
“I don’t think it has felt that way for a few years and football needs this kind of game. If you take the emotion out then you’re ruining football.”