Aubameyang’s personal whirlwind a microcosm of chaotic Chelsea year

No sooner had Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang touched down in London than he was off again – for a specialist mask fitting in Italy. The new Chelsea striker, who completed his £12m transfer from Barcelona before Thursday night’s deadline, will need one to protect the broken jaw that he suffered at the hands of armed burglars who raided his house last weekend.

What a week it has been for the 33-year-old, with so many emotions, majoring on the terrifying ordeal that the thugs inflicted on him, his wife and their children. Thomas Tuchel, the Chelsea manager, has promised him “all the help and support we can give”.

On a professional level, Aubameyang is back in town because he has “unfinished business with the Premier League” and by that you can bet your life he means the proving of a point to Mikel Arteta, who forced him out of Arsenal at the end of last season’s winter window, having grown tired of his erratic timekeeping.

Aubameyang has taken the cursed No 9 shirt at Chelsea because, according to Tuchel, he is “not afraid of the past and what a number means … he is ready to write his own history”.

Tuchel loves Aubameyang, having worked productively with him at Borussia Dortmund from 2015 to 2017. “The more challenges he has, the better he is,” Tuchel said. “If he wants to overcome the No 9 curse or he wants to show somebody in London that he’s better than people think … the more the better.”

Most immediately, Aubameyang must get used to the mask when he trains in it at Chelsea for the first time on Sunday; he will not be involved in Saturday’s home game against West Ham. And then, who knows? He could even play in Tuesday’s Champions League opener at Dinamo Zagreb.

“Maybe it could be Tuesday,” Tuchel said. “Although maybe this