Unai Emery backs Arsenal star Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to better Golden Boot-winning goal tally

1/37
Tom Doyle11 August 2019

Unai Emery has backed Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to improve on his Premier League Golden Boot-winning tally from last season after getting off the mark with Arsenal's winning goal against Newcastle United.

After a largely forgettable first half in which Newcastle were slightly the better side, Arsenal eased to a comfortable three points thanks to Aubameyang's 58th-minute strike at St James' Park.

A sloppy pass was intercepted by Ainsley Maitland-Niles inside his own half and he burst forward before picking out Aubameyang who took a sublime touch before guiding a cool finish beyond advancing keeper Martin Dubravka.

Aubameyang scored 22 League goals last season to share the Golden Boot with Liverpool duo Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane, though that success was tempered by the fact that the Gunners finished fifth in the table.

Asked if he believes Aubameyang can score more than that this term, Emery told reporters: "Yes. Our idea is to continue being one team, mostly offensive. But we need to also take the balance defensively. Today we started well and the next week is going to be another challenge for us.

"A clean sheet, but first to win and to create a big spirit as a team, a big spirit in the Emirates. To win away we know is difficult in each match. Today we struggled but we deserved it."

Emery reaffirmed his desire for Arsenal to work hard from back to front this season, saying: "We want to start defending with Aubameyang and we want to start attacking with Bernd Leno.

"We need to create good combinations, good situations, to create chances and after each player has his quality to score, to do the pass, the assist and to do the job defensively.

"Aubameyang is our scorer, with [Alexandre] Lacazette, with [Nicolas] Pepe, with Reiss Nelson, with Micki (Henrikh Mkhitaryan) and other players.

"And really, today I think every player worked very well. He scored, Aubameyang, but I think it was because every player worked together."

In Pictures | Premier League top scorers 2019-20 season

1/20

Additional reporting by Reuters.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in