Now that the dust has finally begun to settle following a superb European Championships, various clubs up and down the country are beginning their pre-season training in earnest.A lot of the pre-season is used to work on fitness, with some of the summer sessions proving to be truly brutal for players returning from their various holidays around the world.Others are used to work on tactics while still others are spent trying to remember the name of that loan player you forgot existed who has turned up hoping to impress the gaffer.It is a massively important time for teams, and you won't find a single manager worth his salt who will downplay just how crucial an effective pre-season is.p1fas9srte2oj3or1heu1r0keulb.jpgEnter GiveawayOne such manager who may have been hoping for encouraging signs during the early days of his training camp, was Arsenal's Mikel Arteta.Arsenal slumped to an underwhelming 8th in the Premier League last night, amassing just 18 wins over the course of their disappointing campaign.Now with his eyes on the season ahead, Arteta will be desperate for improvement, with fan patience already wearing thin.

(Credit: The Football Terrace)

Unfortunately, the signs are not good.

The north London club somehow managed to lose their first preseason game to Scottish side Hibernian before scraping through to a draw against Rangers yesterday.

While it must be said that this is by no means a full strength Arsenal side, it is still one that should be performing far better than the shambles we are seeing.

Perhaps of chief concern will be the woeful form of captain striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Having 'signed da ting' to much pomp and fan-fair at the beginning of last season, Aubameyang simply wasn't at the races.

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He scored just ten goals throughout the rocky Premier League adventure - less than half of what he managed the season prior.

Now, alarmingly, it seems as if that poor form is manifesting itself once again after a brief compilation of his performance against Rangers started doing the rounds on social media.

Auba is shown spurning chance after guilt-edged chance in a video that won't make for happy viewing for the Gunners faithful.

Once upon a time, these were the sort of opportunities Aubameyang would gobble up in his sleep - now he can't seem to buy a goal.

It's true that pre-season is not the most accurate of prophets when it comes to heralding how a team will actually perform when the rubber hits the road, but this is still a huge concern.

Ideally you want a player of Aubameyang's calibre to be bagging three or four on days like this so as to enter the season riding on a wave confidence.

Unless something changes and soon, that simply won't be happening.