“My problem,” said Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in an indiscreet moment, preserved on video from earlier this year, “was only with Arteta”.
The feeling was mutual. “You cannot rescue trust,” the Arsenal manager told a documentary crew tracking the club through last season, explaining the abrupt departure of his then captain.
Eleven months ago, Arteta’s patience with Aubameyang snapped. Arsenal’s figurehead player, the leading scorer in two of the club’s three previous campaigns, was banished to train with the youth team, pushed towards the exit.
Safe to say it is an unlikely turn of events that will see these two antagonists sharing the same stage again this weekend when Arsenal visit Chelsea. Aubameyang has changed employer twice since the fallout; Arteta has taken an Arsenal orphaned of their ex-skipper to the top of the Premier League.
Hindsight now casts the fracture of that relationship as a crossroads moment in Arteta’s short career as a manager, a brave statement of his authority, his clarity. Perceived indiscipline, specifically around timekeeping, by Aubameyang led to the severing of ties. “He’s been late, apart from all the other issues, many times,” Arteta said.
Some complex negotiations at the tail-end of the January transfer window, then allowed Arsenal and Aubameyang to part on financially acceptable terms, the club agreeing to cancel the last six months of his lucrative contract so he could join Barcelona without a fee.
He took a significant salary cut for the chance to stretch his wide portfolio in club football. The intrepid Aubameyang, who began his senior career at Italy’s AC Milan, would be adding La Liga to France’s Ligue 1, where he played for several clubs, Germany’s Bundesliga, where he starred at Borussia Dortmund, and the Premier League to his résumé.
At Barca, Aubameyang showed that class travels smoothly. In half a season, he scored enough goals – 13 – to make himself Barcelona’s joint leading scorer for the entire campaign.
He scored a hat-trick on his first start in the La Liga; he scored twice and set up another in his first clasico at Real Madrid’s Bernabeu. He heard Xavi, the novice Barcelona coach, describe him in terms utterly distinct from the message from Arteta in his last weeks at Arsenal. “He set an example on and off the field,” beamed Xavi. “He’s a gem. You want these sorts of players in your group.”
But Barcelona, by the summer, wanted a different calibre of striker. Once they had signed Robert Lewandowski to lead the line and Raphinha to attack from wide on the left, they deemed Aubameyang most useful to them for the transfer fee he could bring in. He was sold to Chelsea close to the summer deadline.
“As a coach, I feel bad to lose a footballer like him,” said Xavi. “But it was a good opportunity for him and for the club.” Aubameyang, 33, brought €12m into debt-burdened Barcelona’s treasury.
His goals had also helped them finish second in La Liga. They had been outside the top four when they invited him to join them.
Arsenal, meanwhile, were seventh in the Premier League when Aubameyang played the last of his 163 games for them. They would finish the season fifth, outside the Champions League placings, their top scorer for the campaign Bukayo Saka, with 12.
If there were residual reasons then to feel Aubameyang was missed at Arsenal, the impact of Gabriel Jesus, signed from Manchester City, has quietened any Auba-nostalgia.
Arteta will take his team to Stamford Bridge with a 10-point advantage over Chelsea, confident that he has more accumulated expertise in how to tame Aubameyang than Graham Potter, Chelsea’s manager, has yet acquired in how best to use him.
The Gabonese striker initially signed for Chelsea assuming it would mean a reunion with Thomas Tuchel, who Aubameyang knew well from their time together at Dortmund. Tuchel was sacked within hours of Aubameyang’s debut.
Potter then watched him score his first Chelsea goal on his Premier League debut for his new club, at Crystal Palace, and begin his busy set of reunions with his ex-employers by scoring home and away against Milan in the Champions League. Those are his only Chelsea goals so far.
But on Wednesday, there were signs of growing confidence. His audacious back-heel to Raheem Sterling set up Chelsea’s first goal in the 2-1 win against Dinamo Zagreb. He later thumped an effort against the Dinamo crossbar. That followed a cut inside from the left, on to his right foot, and a stepover. It’s a manoeuvre Arsenal would recognise as Aubameyang’s trademark. It’s a trick Arteta will have his men fully briefed to watch out for.
RESULT
Bayern Munich 3 Chelsea 2
Bayern: Rafinha (6'), Muller (12', 27')
Chelsea: Alonso (45' 3), Batshuayi (85')
The specs
Engine: 5.2-litre V10
Power: 640hp at 8,000rpm
Torque: 565Nm at 6,500rpm
Transmission: 7-speed dual-clutch auto
Price: From Dh1 million
On sale: Q3 or Q4 2022
Omar Yabroudi's factfile
Born: October 20, 1989, Sharjah
Education: Bachelor of Science and Football, Liverpool John Moores University
2010: Accrington Stanley FC, internship
2010-2012: Crystal Palace, performance analyst with U-18 academy
2012-2015: Barnet FC, first-team performance analyst/head of recruitment
2015-2017: Nottingham Forest, head of recruitment
2018-present: Crystal Palace, player recruitment manager
The bio
Favourite book: Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer
Favourite quote: “The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist
Favourite Authors: Arab poet Abu At-Tayyib Al-Mutanabbi
Favourite Emirati food: Luqaimat, a deep-fried dough soaked in date syrup
Hobbies: Reading and drawing
Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week
The alternatives
• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.
• Business Bay’s Pallapay claims 40,000-plus active merchants who can invoice customers and receive payment by card. Fees range from 1.99 per cent plus Dh1 per transaction depending on payment method and location, such as online or via UAE mobile.
• Tap started in May 2013 in Kuwait, allowing Middle East businesses to bill, accept, receive and make payments online “easier, faster and smoother” via goSell and goCollect. It supports more than 10,000 merchants. Monthly fees range from US$65-100, plus card charges of 2.75-3.75 per cent and Dh1.2 per sale.
• 2checkout’s “all-in-one payment gateway and merchant account” accepts payments in 200-plus markets for 2.4-3.9 per cent, plus a Dh1.2-Dh1.8 currency conversion charge. The US provider processes online shop and mobile transactions and has 17,000-plus active digital commerce users.
• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases - but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Bayern Munich v Real Madrid
When: April 25, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Allianz Arena, Munich
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 1, Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Bayern Munich v Real Madrid
When: April 25, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Allianz Arena, Munich
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 1, Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-finals, first leg
Liverpool v Roma
When: April 24, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Anfield, Liverpool
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 2, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
Who has lived at The Bishops Avenue?
- George Sainsbury of the supermarket dynasty, sugar magnate William Park Lyle and actress Dame Gracie Fields were residents in the 1930s when the street was only known as ‘Millionaires’ Row’.
- Then came the international super rich, including the last king of Greece, Constantine II, the Sultan of Brunei and Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal who was at one point ranked the third richest person in the world.
- Turkish tycoon Halis Torprak sold his mansion for £50m in 2008 after spending just two days there. The House of Saud sold 10 properties on the road in 2013 for almost £80m.
- Other residents have included Iraqi businessman Nemir Kirdar, singer Ariana Grande, holiday camp impresario Sir Billy Butlin, businessman Asil Nadir, Paul McCartney’s former wife Heather Mills.
Hunting park to luxury living
- Land was originally the Bishop of London's hunting park, hence the name
- The road was laid out in the mid 19th Century, meandering through woodland and farmland
- Its earliest houses at the turn of the 20th Century were substantial detached properties with extensive grounds
MORE ON IRAN'S PROXY WARS
The specs: 2019 Haval H6
Price, base: Dh69,900
Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 197hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 315Nm @ 2,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 7.0L / 100km
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Gifts exchanged
- King Charles - replica of President Eisenhower Sword
- Queen Camilla - Tiffany & Co vintage 18-carat gold, diamond and ruby flower brooch
- Donald Trump - hand-bound leather book with Declaration of Independence
- Melania Trump - personalised Anya Hindmarch handbag
