Arsenal: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang must become Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

Arsenal’s upcoming match against Manchester City has a ton of question marks, but Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is not allowed to be one of them.

Arsenal need this win against Manchester City. A win would say ‘we are real,’ ‘we can beat anyone,’ ‘get ready for next year,’ and a whole slew of other things. A loss would say ‘yeah, everyone was right about us.’

I don’t want everyone to be right about Arsenal. I don’t want all these experts, who are yet again giving the Gunners a slim chance of winning, to be right. These same experts that all picked the Gunners to lose to Chelsea in the FA Cup final.

There are certain things that need to happen for the red and white, however. These certain things are meant to cancel out the pervading question marks surrounding the team. And one ‘certain thing’ is that we need Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to be Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

It’s crazy to think that the hubbub surrounding his move to North London has already faded into a dull murmur. Having not played in two weeks, that’s understandable. Plus, even when he did play, he wasn’t exactly a game-changer.

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He was pretty irrelevant against Tottenham and, against Everton, he was far from the star, despite having a solid debut.

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Against City, he needs to be a star. He needs to time those runs, to stretch those legs and to ruthlessly devour Claudio Bravo, pulling him apart like soft bread. Because if he doesn’t, who else will?

That’s where the question marks come in. Aaron Ramsey is ruthless, but if he can’t start, then it falls on Aubameyang to be – quite literally – the guy. There is no one coming in to bail him out in the event of a poor start.

This will only be his third game with the club, which tends to lead to the notion of ‘well, he needs time,’ but we don’t have the luxury of giving him time. That said, he is an elite player, world class in every since, and players like that really shouldn’t need time to figure out a new league. Even the Premier League.

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It is going to be an atmosphere that Aubameyang has seen before. It is going to be superior opposition – something Aubameyang has seen before. I say this with hesitation, but in these regards, the pressure really shouldn’t be there as long as he can settle in and be who we signed him to be – himself.