Mikel Arteta
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta insists even captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is not guaranteed a place in his team as he looks to get the Gunners back to winning ways.
Aubameyang has not travelled with the squad for Thursday’s Europa League dead-rubber against Dundalk.
Arsenal are already through to the knockout stages and assured of top spot in Group B having won their opening five matches of the campaign.
But it is domestically disorganizing where Arteta is struggling to find a solution to a poor run of form and a run of lacklustre performances.
Arsenal sit 15th on the Premier League table after their sixth loss in 11 games this season came at the hands of their North London rivals, Tottenham, last Sunday.
One of the main problems has been a lack of goals – only the current bottom three have scored fewer than Arsenal’s 10 so far – with Aubameyang not scoring from open play in the league since the opening weekend.
Arteta said he was not tempted to take his skipper to Dundalk in an attempt to play him into form and that his recent blip does not mean he has an automatic place in his Premier League XI.
“No one is ‘undroppable’ at the end of the day,” he said.
“You have to find the right players to win football matches but we cannot forget what Auba has done for this club and what he’s done in recent months – not years ago.
“Auba was one of the main guys there and today he was walking around the place with an energy that wouldn’t be associated to a team or a player that is suffering at the moment, and this is for me the way we have to approach it,” he added.