Arsenal Vs Watford: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang only confirms his definition

Pierre-Emerick added another goal to his Arsenal tally in Sunday’s win over Watford. The centre-forward’s performance only further entrenched his definition: A pacy, peripheral, prolific striker.

When Arsenal signed Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for a club-record £56 million on the deadline day of the January transfer window, it was clear that they were signing one of the world’s truly world-class centre-forwards. His goal record spoke for itself, as well as a bludgeoning pedigree and growing list of suitors.

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But, as is ever the case when signing players who have little to no experience of English football, of the culture of the Premier League, of the style of the new team, the opponents, the strategies of the coach, there is always that element of doubt that questions whether they can replicate the same form in new surroundings.

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That is why the early matches are so intriguing and important. They provide a foundation and definition for the remainder of their tenure, a standard by which they will be compared to. And so, here we are, six games into his Arsenal career, we are beginning to build a picture of the type of player and centre-forward that Aubameyang is, and how he will acclimatise with the current set-up in North London.

I believe that we saw all of Aubameyang’s staple traits in one match during the 3-0 win over Watford on Sunday. He is, in my eyes, primarily, a pacy striker, who plays on the periphery of the game, with a prolific strike-rate. All three of those attributes were portrayed in an excellent performance against Watford.

First, his pace. This is a little obvious. The absolutely unavoidable thing to realise about Aubameyang is how searingly quick he is, both in terms of his explosive acceleration and his long spend over extended distances. He scampered his way down the Watford channel on several occasions, including for his goal, and was always looking to exploit the natural speed advantage that he enjoyed over the defenders.

He is also, though, a player who likes to be on the periphery of matches. I am sure that he would like more than the 18 touches he received in the Carabao Cup final, but even here, in a game that he seemed to be heavily involved in, he only had 24 touches of the ball, six more than in the cup final. Aubameyang, because of his desire to run into the channels in behind the opposing defence, does not want the ball all that often. It is up to Arsenal, then, to provide precise, probing service on which he can feast.

Finally, he is prolific. Now, by this, I do not mean that he is a ruthless finisher like, say, a Harry Kane or Robert Lewandowski, converting an abnormally high number of chances. In fact, I would argue that Aubameyang is not the most accomplished, clinical of finishers — he has already missed several good chances in his six games here, including a penalty. But because of the intelligence and sharpness of his movement, he will enjoy so many chances that the numbers do not rely on him being an efficient finisher. He scores goals at a prolific rate because of the sheer volume of high-quality shots that he takes on-goal.

In this game alone, for example, Aubameyang had four shots, all coming from inside or marginally outside the penalty area — the one that was outside of the area was the one-on-one early in the game, and is one of the three ‘big chances’ that Who Scored classifies as a chance where a goal is deemed likely.

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It was a very good display from Aubameyang, and it proceeded to only entrench the definition that many had for him as a player before he arrived: A pacy, peripheral, prolific centre-forward. Long may it continue.