Arsenal: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang basically requiring success

Arsenal’s prolific new front man Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has spoken out about the rocky start to his new club, which, if anything, is a prompt for the club itself.

There was a lot of chit-chat about Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang‘s somewhat luke-warm start to life at Arsenal. He struggled to get into a rhythm and, unsurprisingly, a lot of that came from the fact that he wasn’t playing that often because Arsenal as a club weren’t playing that often.

It’s hard to get situated at a new club when you aren’t playing. Being cup-tied in the Europa League, which quickly became the only important competition of the season, surely didn’t help matters.

Aubameyang spoke out about how he has settled more now, and pointed out that he is much more confident now, as he has found his rhythm. He also spoke about how much he enjoyed playing every three days with Dortmund, whereas here, he is playing once a week if he is lucky. Sometimes he is going two weeks between matches because of all the competitions the Gunners are not in.

It got me to thinking how this could project long term. For instance, if Aubameyang loves to play every three days, then how can the Gunners accommodate him? Right now, early on, you chalk it up as part of a process, but moving forward, there has to be a sign of better things to come.

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And that all comes down to success as a club. The Gunners wouldn’t be having this much time off it they hadn’t been bounced from the FA Cup so early.

I always talk about how, for whatever reason, Arsenal players seem to require added motivation to perform at their best. Maybe this can work in reverse. Maybe Aubameyang’s desire to play so often can spur the club to added motivation because it would keep Aubameyang happy. I mean, obviously you’d want them to be performing at their best no matter the situation, but as we have come to find out about Arsenal, that just isn’t always the case.

If Aubameyang is to get his wish and not fall into these long layoffs again, the Gunners will have to be involved in every competition and they will have to be involved deep into these competitions. Which means they would have to stumble into a bit more success than they are experiencing now.

Maybe this is all moot, as Aubameyang is just one guy and surely isn’t going to completely change the mental outlook of a team that seems to struggle so much with their mental acuity. Or maybe having a superstar that wants to play so often is just the push they needed. Who knows.

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All I know is, it never hurts to give the Gunners more motivation to play consistently.