Arsenal boss Unai Emery this evening confirmed that Danny Welbeck will depart the Emirates at the end of the season.
Arsenal 1-1 Brighton
The Gunners welcomed Chris Hughton’s Brighton to the Emirates earlier today, for a crucial outing in the club’s quest to secure a top-4 berth.
Arsenal headed into proceedings looking in on the Champions League spots from the outside, having sat 4 points adrift of 4th-placed Tottenham, and 5 back of 3rd-placed Chelsea.
As such, Emery’s men were aware ahead of kick-off that only a victory, and preferably a substantial one to boost the club’s goal difference, would do.
However, when all was said and done, Arsenal couldn’t get the job done.
A lacklustre display from the capital giants eventually saw Glenn Murray cancel out Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s early penalty with a spot-kick of his own to secure a share of the spoils for Brighton.
Arsenal farewells
This evening’s stalemate, meanwhile, also marked Arsenal’s final home outing of the season.
As such, in the aftermath of the clash, both Aaron Ramsey and Petr Cech were provided with a guard of honour, before being handed a personal award by club chairman Chips Keswick, ahead of their respective departures:
Ramsey and Cech, whom it had long-been common knowledge would depart the Emirates this summer, were not the only ones to have received a club award, though.
Danny Welbeck, who’s future had appeared to be more up in the air than the aforementioned pair, was the other player to have been provided with a sendoff:
‘Going to leave’
As such, with Arsenal having, to that point, not yet made an official announcement on Welbeck’s future, Unai Emery was questioned on the former English international, who has spent the last 5 seasons plying his trade at the Emirates, in a post-match press conference.
And the Gunners’ boss went on to confirm that the decision has been made to allow Welbeck to depart the club on a free transfer this summer:
‘I spoke to the club with this situation. And the decision is he is going to leave.’