Arsenal News: Aubameyang urges teammates to stop 'giving away goals', laments Lacazette's absence against Watford

What's the story?

Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has accused his team of "giving goals to the opposition" during games and has called on his teammates to stop dispensing cheap goals, following the Gunners' collapse against Watford on Sunday.

In case you didn't know...

Arsenal squandered a two-goal lead at Vicarage Road as defensive lapses allowed the Hornets to draw level and salvage a point against the north London giants.

Aubameyang netted a brace to give Unai Emery's men a two-goal lead heading into the break, but dreadful errors by Sokratis Papastathopoulos and David Luiz at the heart of the defence helped the hosts snatch a 2-2 draw by the end of the game.

Papastathopoulos recklessly gave the ball away while trying to play out of defence early in the second half. The Greece international fed the ball to Matteo Guendouzi but Gerard Deulofeu intercepted the pass to set up Tom Cleverly for an easy goal.

To make matters worse for Arsenal, Luiz, who arrived from Chelsea this summer, gave away a soft penalty to the opposition by challenging Robert Pereyra, who neatly secured the equaliser from the spot.

The heart of the matter

Aubameyang has now sent a strong message to his teammates, urging them to refrain from giving away such cheap goals. Speaking to Canal Plus, he said via The Mirror,

"Obviously we didn’t expect that [the comeback]. We knew that they were going to try and come back with good intentions, of the kind they demonstrated in the second half.

"Sadly, we were not able to deal with them well. I feel like we are literally giving goals to the opposition, it is up to us to progress in that respect."

The former Borussia Dortmund star, however, refused to be critical of the defenders alone as he insisted that things might have been different if injured Alexandre Lacazette had been available.

"I don’t want to accuse anyone, you could say that us the attackers could have killed the game off and score a third goal, so I am not going to say it is someone’s fault.

"It is a shame to concede goals like we did… I think it [Lacazette’s absence] affects us. We know very well that he brings us so much in these sorts of games."

What's next?

The defensive trio of Kieran Tierney, Hector Bellerin and Rob Holding have returned to training this week and are expected to return to the squad soon.

The Gunners are next scheduled to face Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League on Thursday before they take on Aston Villa in the Premier League on Sunday.