Arsenal: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang key to true competition

Arsenal need to make things difficult for their complacency, and while Henrikh Mkhitaryan helps, it isn’t solved without Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Arsenal have a problem with their mentality, in case you haven’t noticed. A lot of players aren’t under any pressure to succeed, so they don’t have that added motivation to constantly be at their best. It’s not exactly a direct fault, it’s just the way most humans are wired.

The addition of Henrikh Mkhitaryan helps this situation. Because with the current staff, that means that Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey will likely flank Granit Xhaka, with Mkhitaryan joining Mesut Ozil behind Alexandre Lacazette.

That’s pretty cool.

But the fact remains that the next biggest competitors to this starting XI are Alex Iwobi and Mohamed Elneny, neither of whom is anywhere near challenging that list of names.

So while Mkhitaryan is certainly worth celebrating, true internal competition does not come unless Aubameyang can be acquired. Once he joins up, there will be a serious brawl for the remaining attacking positions. All of a sudden, there is no such thing as a “must-start.”

You would assume that the first three names on the team sheet would be Ozil, Aubameyang and Lacazette. Behind them, I would hope that Aaron Ramsey’s name is there. And we didn’t buy Mkhitaryan to sit, so throw him up there too. Which leaves Granit Xhaka and Jack Wilshere. Both of whom have been quality, the latter of which has been a major influence as of late.

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It is a tough decision, and once Olivier Giroud gets back, assuming he isn’t sent to Dortmund, it gets even tougher, because substitutions are no longer a matter of “well, who do we have?” but a matter of “I have so much, what benefits me the most.”

This is the kind of team, again, assuming everything goes through, that can compete on multiple levels across all competitions. Best case scenario, we have three strikers, I won’t go crazy, I’ll say two and a half world-class strikers. And we have two creators, one is for sure world class and one has shown glimpses.

Then behind that we have two midfielders, Ramsey and Wilshere, who also have the potential to be world class, with Xhaka a bit behind them.

There is a lot there and it can’t all fit into the same starting XI unless we legitimately decide that having a defense just isn’t worth it (spoiler: that isn’t happening).

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But it all hinges on Aubameyang. He is the signing that truly shakes things up.

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