‘The Panther represents me’

Black Panther and in Gabon we call the national team the Black Panthers of Gabon, so it represents me,’ said Aubameyang, who has celebrated goals wearing Spider-Man and Batman masks at previous clubs Saint-Etienne and Borussia Dortmund. ‘I missed two chances to close the game, but the most important thing is that we won and everybody is happy and proud,’ he added. ‘Rennes were a bit nervous and angry as well but that’s football sometimes and it can happen like that.’ Maitland-Niles, whose goal was his first in European football, believes Arsenal are proving their Champions League credentials. ‘We are just showing that we can do it (qualify for the Champions League),’ said the 21-year-old. ‘We are showing that we are good enough as a team and we have great spirit. ‘We are all fighting for each other on the pitch.’ On his team’s stirring fightback, manager Emery added: ‘It was a good evening, 3-0 is good for us. ‘We had chances to score the fourth goal and be more calm. ‘I’m very proud of the supporters and players. We worked very well this week. We can be happy. ‘We were very competitive over 90 minutes but we can do better. ‘We could have had more control of the ball. It’s easy to say here instead of on the pitch. We had a very difficult week after Manchester United on Sunday — but we can take confidence from Sunday and tonight’s wins.’ Aubameyang appeared to be offside in the build up to Maitland-Niles’ goal — Arsenal’s second of the night. And Rennes manager Julien Stephan said: ‘I think it’s clearly offside. ‘The offside was very clear, you don’t need VAR to see it. ‘It was quite clear to us on the pitch. ‘The assistant referee was much quicker to raise his flag in every situation in the second half. ‘It’s an important decision in the game, but Arsenal played better and deserved to go through.’