Arsenal: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang backtracking for the common good

Arsenal are known for making questionable decisions, but this Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang questionable decision is a delicious backtracking.

Arsenal have two world class strikers that can truly make a difference in any match. Finding the best way to utilize the tandem is a puzzle that Arsene Wenger has to solve, because it’s not right that two of your best players should have to split time.

To me, it seemed obvious. Scrap the fears and just start two strikers. It’s not rocket science, plenty of teams do it. Arsenal seems to be the only team that can’t wrap their head around utilizing two hit men.

That said, Wenger is doing his usual thing and overthinking this. But he may be overthinking it into a position of pure brilliance.

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Wenger noted after the brilliant combination of Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang against Stoke City that, more or less, Aubameyang is going to be utilized from wide angles to accommodate Lacazette.

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Normally, I’d be vehemently opposed to shoe-horning a world class striker like Aubameyang onto the wings just to cope with our lack of a true winger, but what we saw against Stoke City changed things for me.

What we saw against Stoke was Aubameyang having more space to utilize his speed and Lacazette having a position to utilize his soft feet and quick turns. Mesut Ozil had a field day with the both of them and that looks like a mighty positive way forward.

The thing is that it requires a step backwards for Aubameyang. The Gabonese striker started on the wings. Of course he did, with that speed. He played wide for Borussia Dortmund when Robert Lewandowski was still there and the two combined to superb effect.

It wasn’t until Lewandowski left that Aubameyang found his way into the striker position. The goals just kept coming and he asserted himself as one of the top strikers in the world, but in the mean time, Wenger has taken his winger days as a sign that the success he found there, in tandem with a world class striker, can be replicated.

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So, in true socialistic fashion, Aubameyang may have to take a step back in his own career for the greater good. But for someone reaching for that next tier of team success that he has been unable to discover with Dortmund, isn’t that a chance you welcome?