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Mikel Arteta believes a win for Arsenal in Saturday’s FA Cup final against fellow Londoners, Chelsea, would convince his Gabonese prolific forward, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, to remain at the club. 

Aubameyang will captain Arsenal at Wembley Stadium against Chelsea, but he is yet to pen fresh terms on a new deal.

The forward’s current contract is due to expire in under a year’s time and he is attracting interest from Barcelona and Inter Milan.B

But Arteta, who himself won the FA Cup as captain of Arsenal back in 2014, believes defeating Chelsea and lifting the trophy could help convince Aubameyang to stay.

“I think that has a strong link with everything that you want to experience as a player,” said Arteta.

“The fact that winning a trophy helps to really believe and feel – wow, I want more of those moments as well. If you are wearing the armband and you are able to lift that cup, it is such a moment and this is going to help for sure.”

Arteta will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of his former boss Arsene Wenger by winning the FA Cup.

The Frenchman won a record seven FA Cups during his time at Arsenal and Arteta revealed he has been picking his brains over the past few months.

“It’s great to have him on board and he gives me great advice,” said Arteta.

Thousands of people, among them many neo-Nazis, took to the streets in downtown Berlin to protest coronavirus restrictions amid an ongoing rise in the number of new COVID-19 cases.

According aa.com.tr, around d15000 protesters, refusing to wear face masks and not complying with the social distancing rules, called for an end to the COVID-19 restrictions.

Police had repeatedly urged the demonstrators to abide by the social distancing rules.

Organized by coronavirus deniers and neo-Nazi activists, the motto of the demonstration was “The End of the Pandemic – Freedom Day” based on the title of a propaganda film produced by Leni Riefenstahl about the Nazi party congress in 1935. 

People voiced opposition to protective measures with whistles and chants like “freedom” or “resistance”.

Slogans such as “The biggest conspiracy theory is the coronavirus pandemic” were also heard from within the crowd.

Many protesters also yelled at people, who were watching the demonstration, calling on them to take off their face and nose protection.

Police units blocked off the protest march and counter-demonstrations in several places as counter-protesters calling themselves “Grandmas against the right” shouted “Nazis out.”

Reacting to the protest march via Twitter, Saskia Esken, the co-chairwoman of the co-ruling Social Democratic party (SPD), lambasted the demonstrators calling them “Covid idiots for celebrating the second wave in Berlin” without observing the social distancing rules and wearing a face mask.

“They not only endanger our health, they endanger our successes against the pandemic and for the revitalization of the economy, education and society. Irresponsible!,” Esken added.

Economy Minister Peter Altmaier had recently called for tougher penalties for violations of coronavirus restrictions and demanded a decisive action in the event of “irresponsible misconduct.”

German health authorities reported 955 new infections in a day, up 75 people from the previous day, according to the German disease control agency Robert Koch Institute (RKI). 

German health officials are concerned that the steady increase in the number of new coronavirus cases could trigger a second wave resulting in a new lockdown as more people are becoming increasingly complacent when it comes to wearing mouth and nose protection and observing the social distancing rules 

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, at least 209,653 people in Germany have been infected, with 9,148 deaths, according to the RKI on Saturday.