Arsenal striker Aubameyang calls for a stop to 'painful' racist abuse

As Arsenal launch an investigation into a video appearing to show a supporter aiming racial abuse at Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has spoken out about the pain of suffering such slurs.

The Gunners striker’s comments were aimed directly at an incident which happened before Chelsea’s Europa League quarter-final first leg against Slavia Prague on Thursday.

A video emerged on social media which appeared to show some travelling fans calling Liverpool star Mohamed Salah "a bomber” while out in the city prior to the tie.

Chelsea are currently investigating the video and Aubameyang - who had a banana thrown at him by a Tottenham fan during the north London derby earlier in the season - admits the incident left him upset.

“I am really disappointed.” said the Gunners striker. “I had the same problem against Tottenham.

“When you are black like me it is really painful, I think, because we are in 2019 and obviously it is not good for football in England.

“Hopefully we will find a way to kick it out.”

Aubameyang’s comments came before it was revealed that Arsenal were also investigating an alleged case of racist abuse which occurred during Thursday night’s Europa League contest with Napoli at the Emirates Stadium.

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The Gunners won the game 2-0 thanks to goals from Aaron Ramsey and Lucas Torreira, but a video has since emerged - again on social media - showing a fan appearing to use a racial slur towards Napoli centre-back Koulibaly.

Arsenal are now working to identify the supporter shown in the 15 second clip and say that anyone caught using racist language will be banned from games and are not welcome at the club.

A statement released by Arsenal said: “We utterly condemn the use of any racist language and have launched an investigation to identify the culprit.

“We operate a zero tolerance approach and anyone behaving like this is not welcome at Arsenal and will be banned from matches.

“We have an extremely diverse community of fans who are all part of the Arsenal family and such incidents are rare at Emirates Stadium.

“We encourage supporters to report any incidents as they happen to stewards or via our matchday alert service.”