Aubameyang’s training incident that spurred him on to Benfica heroics

Arsenal needed some last-gasp heroics from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to squeeze past Benfica in the Europa League.

But Gunners boss Mikel Arteta has revealed how he saw his skipper’s matchwinning two-goal performance coming.

Arteta even told his coaching staff that Aubameyang would come up big in the game, which booked his side a last-16 clash with Olympiakos.

Aubameyang scored the opener but Benfica turned the tables with goals from Diogo Goncalves and Rafa Silva.

And it wasn’t until Kieran Tierney equalised and Aubameyang scored with time running out that the Gunners squeezed through 4-3 on aggregate.

Arteta praised the striker afterwards – and has now revealed the training-ground incident the day before the game that he knew would inspire this key man.

The Arsenal boss said: “In a training session before we played here he missed a penalty and he was really upset.

“Instead of going sad he got upset and I said to the coaching staff that I like that and that he would be fine tomorrow.

“When you have that mentality, I think that's the right way to approach it.”

Aubameyang is Arsenal’s top scorer this season with 13 goals so far but missed two big chances in the first leg of the Benfica tie, which finished 1-1 on the night.

Arteta said: “Sometimes when you go through difficult moments, you can have those difficult moments and get into a sad mode.

“I think that's the worst thing you can do because nobody has to feel sorry for themselves when you're having those moments.

“What you have to do is get upset, get angry, work harder and approach the situation and face it.

“Face the challenge in a way that creates more motivation and more hunger to do it and I think in recent weeks I've seen that reaction.”

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