Arsenal strip Aubameyang of club captaincy

Arsenal have enough on their plate as it is. The club are in the midst of their first season in 25 years without European football, still need to find consistency in their performances and have a manager who has yet to fully convince. But this is something else.

Tunnel vision is required this season block out all the surrounding noise and to aim full focus on getting as high up the Premier League table as possible. Beating West Ham on Wednesday will be in a step in that direction.

Having to deal with the media circus surrounding your club captain failing to be punctual for the umpteenth time is precisely what isn’t needed.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has found himself in hot water again, this time for arriving late from a scheduled trip abroad. It may seem like a minor infraction in the grand scheme of things, but it’s an accumulation of incidents that others abide by, therefore he should suffer the same consequences.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta strips Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of captaincy ahead of Premier League meeting with West Ham

But where would Arsenal go from here? Mikel Arteta insisted that his absence from the team ‘started’ with the Southampton victory, while it was also unknown whether he trained with the rest of his teammates on Monday.

Before even speaking in his pre-match press conference ahead of welcoming West Ham to the Emirates Stadium, a statement from the club confirmed the massive news.

"“Following his latest disciplinary breach last week, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will no longer be our club captain, and will not be considered for selection for Wednesday’s match against West Ham United,” the statement read.“We expect all our players, particularly our captain, to work to the rules and standards we have all set and agreed.”"

That didn’t take long.

Clearly not a knee-jerk reaction to one incident, the aggregate of disciplinary issues that Aubameyang has clocked up have forced Arteta’s hand, and the candid tone of the statement make it abundantly clear that this is intolerable. Rightly so.

The question now is whether there is any coming back from this for Aubameyang. He will be feeling a whirlwind of emotions at this moment in time and it’s difficult to foresee any eventuality where he is back in the team and firing in goals with regularity under this manager.

There must be more to this than meets the eye.