Wenger: Sickness Could Delay Aubameyang's Arsenal Debut
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has revealed that new Gunners signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang may have to wait in order to make his debut for the north London club because of a sickness bug, according to the Telegraph.
The Gabon striker signed for Arsenal from Borussia Dortmund on transfer deadline day for £56m, however, there are doubts that he'll be able to be thrown into action straight away against Everton at the weekend. The match will also see Theo Walcott feature against his former club for the first time.
In Wenger's pre-match press conference on Friday, the French manager confirmed the Arsenal new boy would be a doubt for the clash, saying: "Aubameyang was sick, so we will assess him."
However, Wenger went on to open up about the intricacies of completing the deal on deadline day, and also gave some insight into why the deal took so long to complete. He said: "It was difficult because of course Dortmund wanted a replacement.
"First we had to agree the transfer deal with them and then after that we had to wait for them to find somebody who could replace him. That was a little bit of a cryptic deal because (Olivier) Giroud went to Chelsea and (Michy) Batshuayi went to Dortmund. That’s why it was very short in time and very tense until the end.
"He’s a typical striker with great pace and a good ratio of games and goals scored. He has a good work rate as well and is a team player. We lost some goals because we lost Alexis, Giroud and (Theo) Walcott, who are all goalscorers. He will compensate on that front.
"I believe that the Premier League is a challenge for every big player today. It’s where everybody wants to play. Of course I’ve known him for a long time, he has played against Arsenal many times. He likes the way we play football and he needed a new challenge, certainly. We were the ones who could offer that to him.
Following their mid-week defeat at the hands of Swansea, Arsenal have fallen further behind the top four, sitting eight points behind fourth placed Chelsea, leaving fans keen to see their side reinvigorated in the hopes they will still be capable of pushing for a Champions League place.
Having netted 21 goals from 24 appearances across all competitions for Borussia Dortmund in the first half of the campaign, Aubameyang will surely add more goals to Arsenal's game, potentially propelling the Gunners amongst the Premier League's elite clubs once again.
