Harry Diamond
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has explained what Freddie Ljungberg told the Arsenal players at half-time to inspire their second-half comeback victory at West Ham on Monday night.
Arsenal ended a run of nine games without a win in all competitions at the London Stadium last night, though they were made to work for the victory after trailing at half-time to Angelo Ogbonna’s deflected opener.
18-year-old Gabriel Martinelli would mark his first Premier League start with the equaliser, before goals from record-signing Nicolas Pepe and Aubameyang secured a precious victory, the first time the club have recovered a half-time deficit to claim all three points since October 2011.
The win was also the first of Ljungberg’s reign as interim manager, and captain Aubameyang has now revealed the Swede’s tactical advice at the interval prompted their second-half fightback.
“We feel good,” Aubameyang told Sky Sports.
“I think we played well in the second half so we are happy to win this game. We tried to put some tempo in the game and to play fast and find spaces, and we did that.
“At half-time, Freddie [Ljungberg] told us to play with a higher tempo. It was tough but we have the quality in the squad, and if we believe in ourselves, we can go forward and win games.
“We will take this second half as an example for the rest of the season.”
Arsenal next travel to Belgium to face Standard Liege in the Europa League on Thursday night, the club all but mathematically guaranteed of their place in the knock-out stages.
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