Ex-Arsenal defender Gael Clichy has described Arsenal skipper Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as a great guy with quality, and whose goals will help the team have a great season.
The Gabon international struggled for the North Londoners in front of goal last season, but it has not been the case this campaign.
He has so far scored seven goals for the Gunners this season, with Liverpool attacker Mohamed Salah being the only one in the Premier League to have managed more with 12 strikes in all competitions.
Aubameyang was used on the wing last season and was not as effective as his coach Mikel Arteta had anticipated.
"The striker position is a very difficult one because only if you are [Lionel] Messi or [Cristiano] Ronaldo can you take the ball from your own half and dribble past five or six players and score," Clichy said as quoted by Metro.
"You always need your teammates around as a striker. Obviously, his form wasn’t great because you need to score goals as a striker.
"I am happy for him because he is a great guy and he has got quality and he is only outnumbered by Salah who is in top form and is probably one of the best players in Europe right now. That speaks for itself.
"Arsenal will need Aubameyang scoring a lot of goals to have a great season. But again, it’s important that you keep your players in the right position and Aubameyang offers you so much when he’s down the middle rather than on the wings."
Meanwhile, Arteta has explained the situations of Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette who did not finish Friday's game against Aston Villa in which the Gunners won 3-1 thanks to strikes from their skipper, Emile Smith Rowe and Thomas Partey.
"No, no [Aubameyang was not injured] he was just cramping," the Spanish stated.
"Laca was fatigued. He hasn’t played that many minutes. He worked so hard and at some stage, he just said ‘I’ve had enough' and he was cramping."