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Ian Wright claims Chelsea players will be baffled by Graham Potter’s decision to continually overlook Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang despite their struggle for goals… as the Arsenal icon believes the Blues “need him” ” back on the side
- Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has barely played for Chelsea in recent weeks
- The Blues are struggling hard for goals under Graham Potter
- Ian Wright has called for Aubameyang to return to the team
Ian Wright thinks Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s team-mates will have a hard time understanding why the forward is not making the Chelsea starting line-up with Graham Potter.
Aubayemang met Thomas Tuchel at Stamford Bridge last summer, only for the German manager to be sacked the following week.
Since then, Aubameyang has slipped down the pecking order, missing out on Chelsea’s Champions League squad last month, while his brief cameo from the bench in Sunday’s 2-0 loss to Tottenham was his first appearance for the club in over a month.
Aubameyang has become a peripheral figure at Chelsea, and Wright cannot understand the logic behind him being continually overlooked considering the Blues have scored just one league goal in their last five games. He has suggested that Potter may have a personal problem with Aubameyang, but he has asked the Chelsea manager to put this behind him so his side can shoot in front of goal once more.
“Whatever the problem is with Aubameyang…George Graham had no problem not talking to a player for months, but if he needs to, he’s there,” Wright told Premier League Productions.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has barely featured for Chelsea in recent weeks
Graham Potter’s side are fighting for goals but Aubameyang is still being overlooked
Ian Wright thinks Chelsea players will have a hard time understanding why he isn’t playing
I don’t know what happened, but Chelsea need a striker, they have him and he’s not playing.
You wouldn’t tell the director, but the guys will talk about it. You would talk to Aubameyang and say “we can’t understand why you’re not playing”.
You would tell him that because the Chelsea players know they need him right now. They will be saying that.
‘You don’t know what happened to the boss, you don’t know why he’s not playing, but the players themselves will say ‘how come you’re not playing, what’s going on?’
Chelsea’s loss to Tottenham was their fourth in the league since the turn of the year, and they are also losing in their Champions League round of 16 tie against Borussia Dortmund after the first leg.
The pressure is mounting on Potter to get it right after the club spent £323m in January.
Wright firmly believes that Chelsea have the players to turn things around by serving Aubameyang if they get him out of the cold.
“They have a lot of creativity when it comes to Chelsea,” he said.
“What would be the point of having those two guys (Reece James and Ben Chilwell) eagerly attack, dodge those reverse wingers when they can to put the ball to who?
‘Now, whatever you say about Aubameyang, whatever you think about Aubameyang, he’s a goalscorer.
“If you get the two of them to click again, you have him there all of a sudden. Reece James has someone to hit, Chilwell has someone to hit. Then you have (Enzo) Fernandez, who can find him at the top.
“There are so many things I was thinking about that this could work out for them.”