AUBA AND OUT FOR FLY-AWAY CANARIES
PIERRE-EMERICK Aubameyang not only made himself Arsenal’s fastest-ever player to reach 50 Premier League goals, but boss Mikel Arteta believes the striker will stay at the Emirates.
The Gabon international, who has a year left on his contract, hit two and made another to reach his 50 in 79 games – quicker even than Thierry Henry – and join Leicester’s Jamie Vardy at the top of the scoring charts.
Arteta said: “Auba knows really well that all my thoughts are towards him. He knows the project I want to create.
“I remain positive that we can keep him here for many years. But things have to progress.
“I hope he scores 100 goals for us. But I’m not a magician. What he has achieved tells us everything about his mentality and the way he works every day. Hopefully we can keep him here for a much longer period.”
Aubameyang said: “We’ll see. We’ll talk with the club and see what’s going to happen. Since Mikel is in we are doing well. We’re working well. We have good signs that we are improving.”
Arsenal were clinical, ruthlessly efficient and far too good for Norwich, who have already run up the white flag. They’ve given up.
Tim Krul must have been thinking about his holidays when he allowed Aubameyang to rob him and open the scoring in the 33rd minute.
And the Norwich defenders were on their sun loungers with him when Granit Xhaka (right) wrapped it up four minutes later.
Canaries boss Daniel Farke, whose men have yet to take a single point from a losing position in the Premier League this season, said: “We can’t complain about the result because we made too many mistakes. I don’t blame Tim at all because he’s had a fantastic season. We are all human beings and even your most consistent players can make individual mistakes.”
Gunners fans will be praying that Aubameyang stays, but at least they’ve got young Bukayo Saka – an unused sub here – signing a new deal to prevent him becoming the latest in a string of top talents flourishing elsewhere. Norwich are going down because – as the old gag says – they remain convinced that defence is what you stick around de garden.
The three substitutions made by Farke at half-time told you everything about how much off the pace of the match they really were.
Even then, one of them, Josip Drmic, handed Arsenal their third goal on a plate with 23 minutes to go.
The Swiss frontman sent a suicidal ball across the edge of his own box and Aubameyang whipped out his napkin and his knife and fork. Three-nil.
Moments after coming off the bench for his debut, Cedric Soares smashed in a deflected shot to make it four.
Arsenal won’t get carried away, but this win restores their fragile confidence, with games to come against Wolves, Leicester, Spurs and Liverpool.
Norwich need to at least go out with some dignity. For Farke’s sake.