Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang revealed a new penalty run-up against Manchester United helped him avoid a repeat of his north London derby miss.
Aubameyang showed his nerve by stepping up from 12 yards against United despite missing from the spot against Tottenham last weekend, and made no mistake by sending David De Gea the wrong way for the second goal in Arsenal’s 2-0 win.
After the game he told Sky Sports’ Jamie Redknapp how he had made sure he didn’t make the same mistake as he had done at Wembley eight days prior.
He said: “I was confident, my team-mates give me a lot of confidence. Laca gave me the penalty and that was cool from him, I was really focused. I made a mistake against Tottenham, looking down at the last moment, not watching Lloris, but today I watched until the end – and being focused you score a penalty.
“I know where the ball is and you have to practice this all the time, and today it went in! I knew that it would be tough, but I was feeling confident and if I missed this one, what can I say?”
Arsenal’s win moves them back above United into fourth position and only one point behind third-placed Tottenham with eight games to go. The Gunners have missed out on Champions League qualification for the last two seasons, but Aubameyang said he was confident of making it third time lucky.
“We have a good spirit, we are hungry. We want to come back into the Champions League and we’re all focused on that,” he said.
“It would mean a lot [to win the Golden Boot]. It’s not easy, we have great strikers in this league and it will be tough until the end, but I stay focused and the most important thing is the Champions League first, and if I can get it then that’s great.”
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