Arsenal legend Lee Dixon believes that Gunners captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang could benefit from a spell out of Mikel Arteta's team.
The 31-year-old has been struggling with a calf problem over the last couple of weeks but has generally failed to live up to expectations since penning a new three-year deal with Arsenal in the summer.
The former Borussia Dortmund man has only struck three times in the 2020-21 Premier League campaign so far and was an unused substitute as the Gunners ended their seven-game winless run in the top flight with a 3-1 victory over Chelsea on Boxing Day.
Speaking to talkSPORT, Dixon said: "Nobody is bigger than the club. And maybe Mikel Arteta might look at the game at the weekend and say, 'we did create some chances, we did this.
"It might just do [Aubameyang] a bit of good to have a little step out of the team and just look from the sidelines. When you watch a game from the sidelines you can sometimes learn more than you do when you're on the pitch.
"Your brain is so full of information when you're playing; you don't always see everything, you don't always feel everything. Sometimes when you just step back and you sit on the bench for a bit and you look...
"He's obviously a hugely talented footballer and we need his goals, but it might be a time for him just to look and assess the team.
"You can actually see little ways of improving your own game when you're sitting on the bench, because you're watching other people and you're seeing gaps appear from a different angle. So it might do him a bit of good to step out.
"If they win their next two games and he doesn't play then he [could] come back firing. That rest might do him good."
Arsenal next face a trip to Brighton & Hove Albion on Tuesday evening, with Arteta's men still languishing in 15th despite the impressive win over Chelsea.
Ben Knapton
