Arsenal: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang eyeing another crucial distinction

It seemed impossible to replace Alexis as of a year ago, but Arsenal have a new direction, and that direction is proving itself far quicker than anticipated.

Arsenal avoided a really dangerous situation when they were able to swap out Alexis Sanchez for Henrikh Mkhitaryan. All signs point to this deal being a superb bargain for the Gunners, with potential to work out for Manchester United as well.

The numbers, however, are incredibly in the Gunner’s favor.

For instance, Mkhitaryan has been extremely effective, scoring a goal and adding four assists in 451 minutes for a superb goal contribution rate. Better than Alexis’s, which sees him in 688 minutes of play with two goals and three assists.

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Mkhitaryan aside, it is pretty well accepted that it’s actually Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang that is the more direct replacement for Alexis.

Which is where things get even more exciting, because for as good as Mkhitaryan has done, Aubameyang has been even better.

He has already scored the most goals of any Arsenal player in history over his first seven games. That’s well and good, but I’m over here talking about a competition. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang vs an adversary. And who could fill that role better than Alexis Sanchez?

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I had this pipe dream of Aubameyang scoring more goals in his half year at Arsenal than Alexis in his full year across both teams. It seemed a bit crazy at first, given acclimation and all that other nonsense, but when you look at the numbers now, they are in a dead heat.

Alexis has nine goals in 2200 minutes and Aubameyang has six goals in 611 minutes. No big deal.

In a season that has been riddled with disappointments, there is still one major victory that can happen in the Europa League, but I’m all about moral victories too, even though they are worth absolutely nothing in the grand scheme.

Aubameyang finishing with more goals than Alexis would be the greatest moral victory I could ever think of. The Gunners were doubted for their pursuit of Aubameyang given that he was doing to Dortmund that Alexis was doing to the Gunners, but if he can do that much more convincingly than his counterpart and in such high spirits, as we see on a match-by-match basis, then it’s simply fantastic.

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Moral victory or not, I’ll take any victory at this point, and if that victory spites Alexis Sanchez, then even better