Martin Keown has urged Mikel Arteta to stop falling out with his Arsenal players after Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang became the latest star to be cast aside by his manager.

Aubameyang was unveiled by Barcelona at the Nou Camp on Thursday after completing his free transfer this week.

Arteta was key to Aubameyang signing a big-money, three-year Arsenal contract in September 2020 but the pair’s relationship broke down after the Spaniard froze the striker out and stripped him of the captaincy following a breach of discipline.

Aubameyang admitted in his Barcelona unveiling that Arteta was the reason behind his departure from north London and the Gabon striker is not the first to have felt the wrath of the manager.

Mesut Ozil was also cast aside by Arteta, who didn’t even register the German for his Premier League and Europa League squads in 2020-21 before he left while Matteo Guendouzi, currently on loan at Marseille, was also ostracised.

Speaking on talkSPORT, Keown urged Arteta not to be so confrontational with those players who are misfiring and instead he must ‘find find a way to get the best out of everybody’.

The Sportsmail columnist said: ‘Is this decision in the best interest of Arsenal football club? That’s all I’m looking at.

‘There is no replacement that’s come in for the striker. Arsenal are in a fight for fourth place and have an opportunity to do that.

‘This player, slightly differently to the Ozil situation, the current manager give him the contract. He assessed the player, felt he was good enough to go so no problems.

‘Tuchel has come and said “yes, Aubameyang was always late for training. We handled him differently” so the manager knew what the situation was. And, of course, what I don’t want also is the manager to get a reputation for falling out with players.

‘I don’t know of another high profile manager who has fallen out with quite so many players. Maybe it was easy to fall out with Ozil. Guendouzi has since gone on and done well, got into the national team. That’s one or two fallouts.

‘He may feel he’s eradicating a culture that was allowed to grow under Arsene Wenger. I understand that but at the same time all football players are very different so what you need to do is find a way to get the best out of everybody.

‘You can’t keep falling out with people. You could argue, and I’ve seen Arsenal fans say, if you step out of line then you’re out but maybe not if you’re Xhaka. He’s stepped out of line a few times and come straight back into the team.

‘So this sort of policy of management, is it about building a culture or are there certain things he’s seeing in players where he thinks “I don’t want it. You’re out of the building”.’

Keown also admitted that he knew the writing was on the wall for Aubameyang and his Arsenal future when he lost the captaincy.

Keown added: ‘I thought Aubameyang was a part of his greatest success, winning the FA Cup. It was a shame he was allowed to leave.

‘I didn’t want the captaincy stripped because I was fearful the player was going to leave. That’s what’s happened.

‘It’s a shame the welcoming hand wasn’t shown to him after he took the captaincy away. It’s a massive honour to captain that football club, as he himself knows, and the player has been cut loose.

‘Now he’s at Barcelona. That shows the quality of the player. His form dipping was the reason for this. He’s always had the same character traits but he stopped producing on the football pitch.

‘Through Covid it’s like he’s fallen off a cliff in terms of performance and he’s had to go.’