Plenty were laughing at Arsenal at the start of this season when, after three games and three losses, they were rock bottom of the Premier League. Some talked of possible relegation, plenty chuckled at the notion of the Amazon Prime documentary cameras capturing this most farcical of seasons.
It was a pretty bold move, then, by Gunners boss Mikel Arteta to jettison his captain and senior striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang after a few weeks more of the campaign had passed by. But perhaps it was a lesson in rebuilding that Manchester United could take note of.
Arsenal had already sanctioned the exits of Saed Kolasinac, Calum Chambers and Willian for free before Arteta allowed Aubameyang to seal a Barcelona move for nothing in January. In previous windows, the Gunners had let the likes of Mesut Ozil, Shkodran Mustafi and Henrikh Mkhitaryan all go for basically no money, with Arteta keen to oversee a proper reset in north London.
