Arsenal: Wenger’s Aubameyang comments show why change was wanted

Arsene Wenger heralded Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s influence in Arsenal’s 5-1 win over Everton on Saturday night. His comments reveal exactly why he wanted to change from Olivier Giroud: movement.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang made his full home debut in Arsenal’s comfortable 5-1 win over Everton on Saturday evening. He capped it off with a lovely goal, darting in behind the Everton defence and clipping over the onrushing Jordan Pickford after being fed by a lovely, slid through pass from Henrikh Mkhitaryan, even if he was marginally offside.

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But there was much more to the £56 million signing’s performance than just the goal. His link-up play was surprisingly adept, including a lovely clipped pass to Mkhitaryan in the build-up for the first goal, and he showed a willingness to battle in the notoriously physical Premier League.

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Arsene Wenger, though, was keen to highlight one particular aspect of his game in particular: movement. When asked about Aubameyang’s display in his post-match press conference, Wenger could not help but light up as he gushed about the speed, the intelligence and the timing of the Gabon international’s movement:

"“The quality of his movement, I must say. When you analyse well where he goes and when he goes, it’s always what you want from a striker, and even then I believe he is not completely 100 percent fit physically. But the quality of his movement and the quality of his finishing was very good.”"

His comments quite starkly indicate why he wanted to move on from Olivier Giroud. That inclination was hinted at last season, as Wenger would regularly rotate the Frenchman with Alexis Sanchez and Danny Welbeck, often preferring one of the latter two as his lone striker thanks to their greater mobility.

And it was only enforced in the summer when Wenger, oddly, broke the club’s transfer record to secure the £47 million services of Alexandre Lacazette, a centre-forward renowned for the sharpness and anticipation of his movement in and around the penalty area, something that Giroud is most certainly not renowned for.

Now, it has been confirmed: Wenger wants a pacy front line bursting with players who know how to exploit space with intelligent movement for themselves and create space for others by synchronising their runs with the overall pattern of play. Aubameyang is irrefutably that player; Giroud is not.

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Even if Wenger is not able to squeeze both Aubameyang and Lacazette into the same team as many had hoped he would, he now has two top-tier strikers who rely on their speed and their athleticism to score goals. That is how Wenger wants to play, and Giroud simply didn’t fit.