Arsenal: Alexandre Lacazette could have done all Aubameyang did

Arsenal certainly laid the hurt down in their first match with their new look. But is it safe to say that we actually didn’t need Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang? I think so.

Arsenal exceeded a lot of people’s expectations with a rousing January transfer window that saw them land two world class attackers in Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. But acquiring them was only half of the journey. The other half was seeing how well they had actually performed in a red and white shirt.

Well, they did quite well. Superb, in fact. So superb that I’m wondering if Aubameyang was even a necessity.

Many doubted that he was a necessity, seeing as how we already had Alexandre Lacazette here to do a very similar task as what we were buying Aubameyang to do. And they both had very similar skill sets, albeit with Aubameyang having a bit more proven in his areas of expertise.

Obviously I’m thrilled that Aubameyang is here and there will be matches to come where I’ll probably be barking about how much we needed the Gabonese striker, but in the smashing debut, I feel completely confident in saying that we actually didn’t need him.

I would even o so far as to argue that if the Gunners had gone through January only swapping Alexis for Mkhitaryan, I think we would have come out just fine. Again, that doesn’t mean that I think we should have handled January any differently.

Think about the match against Everton. Would swapping out Aubameyang for Lacazette have made any difference? Aubameyang made a smart pass on the first goal that Lacazette could have made. He scored a nice chip on the fourth goal that maybe Lacazette would have handled differently (he probably would have been flagged offside) but with his finishing ability, he still likely would have been able to put it away.

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And on the breakaway second shot for Aubameyang, Lacazette may even have been able to do better.

My point is just that, for the first time in about a decade, perhaps more, we have an overkill. We have a surplus. And it feels amazing. This must be what City fans feel like, except more-so because they have no history to speak of.

Now the trick is getting them both into the same starting XI. It seems like such a waste to have to start one or the other. I get that City do the same thing and it works well to interchange them, but we don’t have to mimic everything they do.

Next: 5 Things Learned Against Everton

Why not start them both, play them off of each other, and in the event that matches get out of hand, as they did against Everton, well, that’s when you can sub one off at half and safe him.