Barcelona captain Sergio Busquets has described the free signing of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on a free transfer from Arsenal as a ‘gift’.
The Gabon international grabbed a hat-trick – his first goals for La Bluagrana – in a 4-1 win at Valencia in La Liga on Sunday.
Aubameyang opened the scoring after making a smart run in behind the Valencia backline, firing in at the near post. He secured his brace with a simple tap-in, before Pedri’s thunderous strike deflected in off his back to seal his treble.
Those goals mean that Aubameyang is already Barcelona’s joint-third highest scorer in La Liga this season, with only Memphis Depay and Luuk de Jong having found the net more often.
Speaking after Barça’s win at the Mestalla, Busquets said to Movistar+ that he’s been delighted with Aubameyang’s impact as well as the fact he arrived on a free transfer from Arsenal.
“He’s working really well, he came here needing minutes but he is getting them now,” Busquets said. “I hope he helps us like this because he is a great player and having him in the squad on a free transfer is a gift.”
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta stripped Aubameyang of the club captaincy and effectively froze him out of first-team operations in December after a disputed disciplinary breach, and the Gunners agreed to terminate his contract in order to simply get him off the wage bill.
After a move to Barcelona threatened to fall through in January, Aubameyang was able to seal his move to Camp Nou as a free agent at the start of February.