Mikel Arteta makes claim about Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

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Mikel Arteta has suggested that he believes that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang can do better, and insisted that the Arsenal captain is determined to do exactly that – in comments reported by Football London.

It has been an interesting season for Aubameyang. He has had to deal with criticism at times. And of course, he has had to deal with setbacks away from the pitch.

But he is actually enjoying a hugely impressive run of form right now. The 31-year-old has scored nine goals in his last 11 games in all competitions, with the highlights coming from a hat-trick against Leeds and a vital brace against Benfica.

He now has 13 in all competitions for the Gunners this term. But ahead of Thursday’s tie with Olympiakos, Arteta insisted that he wants even more from the forward.

“Obviously, there are much better stats, stats related to who he is and what he needs to bring to the team,” he said, as reported by Football London, when asked about his recent superb form.

“But still I think he could score many more and he can do better in other aspects. He needs to keep having that mentality and he has that mentality. We need players to perform to the maximum.

“If Auba is in much better place the team will be in a much better place because at the end the games are decided in both boxes and what he can produce in the opponents boxes can have a great impact for our team.”

Aubameyang scored 22 times in both of his previous full Premier League campaigns. So he is going to have to produce something special to match that tally this time around.

But the good news is the form has been more encouraging of late. And that is a positive heading what could be a season-defining eight days for Arteta’s men.

In between the two legs in Europe, Arsenal take on their bitter rivals in the North London derby.

Obviously, it is asking a lot of the Gunners to push themselves back in the European spots in the top flight – but none of the players will be thinking about their league position when they take to the field on Sunday.