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Arsenal took another step towards a top-four finish on Monday night thanks to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, but Dean Saunders’ comments on the striker may have gone a little too far.

The Gunners are now in pole position to pip Chelsea and Manchester United to a top-four position, having scraped past the Hornets at Vicarage Road on Monday.

Unai Emery’s side had the perfect start when Aubameyang closed down Ben Foster, who inexplicably waited too long to clear the ball and allowed the Gabonese international to block his effort into the net.

And Saunders, who made his living as a scrappy, hard-working striker, has heaped praise on the Arsenal forward with one ridiculous claim.

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What did he say?

“For me, this is going to sound stupid, goal of the season,” he said on TalkSPORT.

“You look at (Mohamed) Salah’s goal and you think how can that be better? Aubameyang has chased down a lost cause, which is a goal that he’s got out of nothing.

“Being a striker and coaching strikers, for me, I enjoyed that goal (Aubameyang’s) more than Salah’s goal.”

Downright bizarre

It’s fair to say TalkSPORT have a habit of making deliberately unpopular claims in order to provoke a reaction from fans on both sides of the matter, but you’d be hard pushed to find an Arsenal fan that agrees with Saunders on this one.

Yes, Aubameyang’s goal showed the type of work ethic and poacher’s instinct that every goalscorer should be coached from a young age, but to nominate a goal that is largely a goalkeeping error for goal of the season is truly bizarre.

Is Divock Origi’s last-ditch header against Everton the strike of the season because he followed up Jordan Pickford’s mistake? No, it’s a goalkeeping error where some credit belongs to the forward for doing his job.

Aubameyang was doing just that – his job. Saunders, who is paid to give his expert analysis, should try it some time.