05 January 2023 , 22:21
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There are few things more embarrassing in football than being substituted on and off in the same match.
Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang found out exactly what that experience is like in Chelsea's 1-0 defeat against Manchester City on Thursday night. The Gabon international was called on to replace Raheem Sterling on five minutes after the latter picked up a hamstring injury, before being taken off just over an hour later.
The 33-year-old has made just four Premier League starts under Graham Potter and has become a fixture on the bench in recent weeks with Kai Havertz preferred up front. Aubameyang was brought in to work alongside Thomas Tuchel, but the German was sacked a matter of days following the forward's move to Stamford Bridge.
After making a bright start to life at the Blues, scoring in Potter's first Premier League game in charge of Chelsea as they ran out 2-1 winners over Crystal Palace, Aubameyang has been sparsely used, especially since the World Cup break. However, he was handed a chance to impress, virtually from the start of the game after Sterling's injury.
It is safe to say the former Arsenal striker did not take it. Aubameyang was isolated in the centre forward role and had just 14 touches on the ball across his 63 minutes on the pitch. Of those touches, he completed 10 passes, had one touch in the City box and failed have a shot at all.
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Aubameyang also didn't provide much help on a defensive note, winning one duel and committing one foul. The forward worked as hard as he could up front but to no avail as he was replaced by Omari Hutchinson in the 67th minute - which in turn was a professional debut for the teenager.
Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang was taken off for Chelsea against Man City (Matt Impey/REX/Shutterstock)It was really a damning statement for Aubameyang, who was replaced by a player who hadn't played a senior game before. If it was for an injury or illness then it would be understandable, but Potter decided to hook the attacker for Hutchinson with a quarter of the game to go.
With City already winning 1-0 courtesy of Riyad Mahrez's second-half strike, Chelsea had a mountain to climb and they were unable to claw themselves back in the game as Pep Guardiola's men closed the gap on Arsenal to just five points at the top of the table. Meanwhile, Chelsea are 10th and the pressure is beginning to rise on Potter.
As for Aubameyang, his snub was a summary of where he is at in his career at the moment despite praising the then new-Chelsea boss in September. He said: "I think he [Potter] is a really positive person and a great character. We will try to learn with him and to win as soon as possible. I think his ideas are very clear so I think it’s going to be easy. It takes time to adapt to each other but I think it’s going to be OK."