Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is hoping to bounce back from a couple of poor performances by repeating history against Benfica.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang missed a couple of golden opportunities against Benfica in the Europa League Round-of-32 first leg, and he followed that up with a relatively anonymous display against Manchester City.

The timing of the slump was a bit surprising, coming after the striker had just scored a hat-trick against Leeds United, but he needs to get back on form quickly with a number of big fixtures coming up.

First up is the second leg against Benfica. Aubameyang recalls that this isn’t the first time he’s had a poor first leg against the same opponent, and he hopes he can repeat the way he bounced back in their last matchup.

“It was in the Champions League knockout stages, and I had a bad game in the first leg,” Aubameyang told the Arsenal Matchday Programme (via Metro). “I didn’t just miss a penalty, I missed all of my chances that first game.

“The whole way through the game, I was missing a lot of chances. I remember I had three clear opportunities to score and the penalty as well.

“I said to [my family] that I’m going to do everything to try to qualify my team in the second leg and I will do it for you, I promise. And then, in the end, I scored three goals at home in the second leg to send us through.

“I hope something similar can happen tonight.”

That’s the main positive of these two-leg knockout ties, a chance for redemption tends to come around pretty quickly. Club captain Aubameyang needs to take it and get himself going again.