Mikel Arteta has faced criticism for his handling of some players who are no longer at Arsenal due to the Spaniard’s decision to allow their departures regardless of their apparent quality.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang left on deadline day this January for Barcelona after being stripped of the Arsenal captaincy and falling out with Arteta. The Gabonese striker said his only problem at the club was with the manager he had highlighted for the reasoning behind signing a new deal less than a year and a half prior.
Barcelona boss Xavi Hernandez, however, has been speaking about Aubameyang’s transition and some felt that the Spaniard had highlighted a couple of digs in the direction of Arteta.
"He is training very well, he needed stronger sessions. He is already 100% and we will see him play for sure. He is a player who can make a difference, he works well in spaces and makes good runs into the area," he said.
"He's put in performances in recent years that have been very good. I am very happy with him; he is working positively in our group, and he is very professional."
Aubameyang's form for Arsenal has been far from '100%' and if Xavi is claiming he has managed to see him reach that level, the evidence has not been seen on the field for the Blaugrana as yet.
It is worth considering that Aubameyang was training away from the Arsenal first team for some time prior to the move on deadline day. He also caught Covid-19 whilst away on international duty with Gabon at The African Cup of Nations.
Additionally, it would be odd for Xavi to come out and speak negatively about his brand-new signing. Furthermore, a player who flew out on deadline day to push through a deal would then be fairly naive to not be professional after securing the move.
Interestingly, however, to play devil’s advocate, Feyenoord manager Arne Slot spoke about how Arsenal loanee Reiss Nelson had also not had training sessions as intense as his in north London.
"Nelson had participated in almost all training sessions at Arsenal, but he experiences the training here as a bit more intense," said Slot.
Nelson has since broken more regularly into the Eredivisie side’s first team and will return to Arsenal at the end of the season with much greater market value than when he left.
So, is there an argument that Arsenal’s training sessions are not intense enough and it is contributing to poor output on the field? No, absolutely not.
If anything, Arsenal have improved greatly with the training methods introduced in the last year. Arsenal are in a race for the top four with the youngest squad in the league and reached the semi-final of the League Cup.
Injuries have been kept to a minimum too with only Takehiro Tomiyasu and Kieran Tierney suffering short-term problems this season. Dealing with set-pieces has also massively improved under the guidance of Nicolas Jover.
Should the Gunners miss out on their primary targets then the time for discussing the reasons behind it can be had, but whilst Arsenal remain in the race for the top four there is little need to dig any deeper.
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