Arsenal: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang shows key element is needed

The Arsenal attack looked far more potent when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang arrived. He showed the key element that is needed even more next season: Pace.

As Henry and I were recording the Pain in the Arsenal Podcast season review, which you can hear here, we were reflecting on the early season, which certainly feels like an age away now, and wondering what felt different between that team and the one of the latter months.

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In the end, we came to the realisation that the early-season team was lacking one crucial element: Speed. While players like Alexis Sanchez and Alexandre Lacazette do possess an element of pace, it is refined in regards to their sharpness in short spaces, not predicated on exploiting long-speed as they drive in behind the opposing defence.

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Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had been sold, Theo Walcott had been eased out of the line-up, Olivier Giroud was certainly not that type of player, and Danny Welbeck was injured until the turn of the year. Arsenal didn’t really have anyone who could stretch the pitch, and it meant that their play in possession slowed down drastically, the shape became cramped and congested, they were easy to defend against unless if Alexis and Mesut Ozil enjoyed one of their magical days.

All that changed in January with the introduction of one player: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

The Gabonian striker was signed for a club-record £56 million on deadline day. It was strange, considering that Lacazette had broken the club transfer record just six months earlier. But as soon as he entered the starting XI, it was clear why Arsenal were willing to pay such a fee for another attacker.

More than the goals, more than the quality of his movement, more than the consistent threat that he provides on the shoulder of the defence, simply by Aubameyang being present does this team look more potent in the final third. And that is because of his natural, fear-inflicting, breathtaking speed.

The game opens up when Aubameyang is present because the defenders are scared of him simply drifting by them, such is his effortless speed. It is no surprise that the likes of Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Aaron Ramsey and even Lacazette himself have come alive with Aubameyang present.

This is a key element that I believe Arsenal need to add more of this summer. One of the key reasons why Kevin de Bruyne and David Silva have been so effective for Manchester City this season is because of the frightening presence of Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane on either flank. That fear creates space, space that the ingenious pairing of de Bruyne and Silva can work their magic.

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It is pace that has unlocked the best in City this season; it is pace that has unlocked the best in many of the Gunners’ contributors this season. They now need more of it. Aubameyang displayed the importance of it, but he must now be supplemented.