Revealed: Why Aubameyang was dropped for north London derby

Alexandre Lacazette was picked to start ahead of Aubameyang, who has scored six goals in his last seven games.

“He (Aubameyang) was going to start the game, we had a disciplinary issue. We have drawn the line and we move on. He’s on the bench,” said Arteta.

Asked if he would explain what Aubameyang had done, Arteta said: “No. Obviously we keep that internally. We have a process that we have to respect for every game and that’s it.”

Sky then pressed Arteta to say if he had debated leaving Aubameyang out of the squad, he said: “It is a decision made after evaluating everything, and who Auba is and what’s he done and that’s it.”

Former Arsenal player and interim manager Freddie Ljungberg said of Aubameyang: “The only thing I can think about is maybe he has been late or something, because [if] you still keep him on the bench it can’t be that bad.”

Arsenal XI: Leno, Cedric, Luiz, Gabriel, Tierney, Thomas, Smith-Rowe, Saka, Odegaard, Xhaka, Lacazette

Subs: Bellerin, Ceballos, Willian, Aubameyang, Holding, Pepe, Chambers, Elneny, Ryan