Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang may have only arrived at Arsenal a few months ago but he has no problem seeing the main problem at the club over recent seasons – stagnation under Arsene Wenger.

While fans of many other clubs couldn’t understand why Arsenal fans wanted Wenger to leave, despite him lifting a number of FA Cups and consistently qualifying for Europe, it was this stagnation that was causing the problem.

Not only had players stopped developing, some seemed to be going backwards. Meanwhile, season after season felt like Groundhog Day as the players committed the same errors week after week with no hint that Wenger knew how to stop it from happening.

Speaking after the announcement of Unai Emery as the new Arsenal head coach, Aubameyang was refreshing with his honesty.

“He’s a really good coach,” Aubameyang said. “In Paris, it’s never very easy. There’s a huge amount of pressure… I know he did really good work with Sevilla and with PSG too.

“I think it’s a little bit of a mixed feeling in fact,” Aubameyang added, when asked about Wenger’s exit.

“On one hand, it’s strange for all the fans that the coach has left. But it’s definitely a fresh start.

“Since over the last few seasons – you have to tell the truth – the club has stagnated a little bit, I think everyone is actually a little bit excited to see what happens next season.

“It is strange that the coach has left after 22 years,” he continued. “But that’s life — we have to look forward. It’s going to be a new start so we’ll have so we’ll have to see how it goes… everyone will have to get it into their heads that we have to work hard to rival the best.”

The Gabon striker also spoke about his own position at the club. “I think everybody knows that I like playing through the centre. I hope that we can play with two attackers — that would be ideal. But if the new coach needs me on the wing, there’s no problem.”