Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been in superb form since his January move to Barcelona from Arsenal. In order to make the deal permanent, Arsenal waived the transfer fee for the 32-year-old, who joined the Catalan giants on an 18-month contract.
The Gabon captain’s salary would save the Premier League outfita lot of money, thus they wanted to get him out of the club without paying a transfer price. Despite this, Aubameyang has already established himself as one of Blaugrana’s best players after joining the club a little over two months ago.
After failing to score in each of his first three appearances for the club,the former Borussia Dortmund striker was introduced to the team by Xavi to help him regain match fitness. In the midst of the season, the 32-year-old spent almost two months without playing for Arsenal’s first team before being ostracized by manager Mikel Arteta.
What do Aubameyang, Lionel Messi, and Luis Suarez have in common?
With his latest strike in Barca’s 3-2 win against Levante, he now has 10 goals in his previous 11 games, becoming him the fastest player in club history to reach double digits in goals scored.
It took Lionel Messi38 matches to score his first goal for Barcelona, whereasLuis Suarez needed as many as24 appearances to score his first ten goals for the club. At 14 games, Samuel Eto’o took the same number of matches as Aubameyang did to get there.
Only Ronaldo Nazario (nine games), Romario (nine matches), and Laszlo Kubala had more than 10 goals in a season for the Spaniards(13). It was Aubameyang who ignited Barcelona’s season and played a key role in turning things around for manager Xavi when the season first appeared doomed.
Meanwhile, Mikel Arteta’s side has struggled in front of the goal since the departure of their former captain, with just Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah on the first-team roster. Since the start of the calendaryear, the Gunners have netted only 13 goals, one of which came in their most recent game.