Arsenal: Unai Emery will have to upset one of them

Arsenal have two excellent strikers in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette. But as he builds his team, implements his plans and shapes the future of the club, Unai Emery will have to upset one of them.

In Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette, Arsenal have two of the very best strikers in the world. After Robin van Persie’s departure in 2012, the Gunners have not had a centre-forward of their calibre in the squad. But last season proved the worth of having two top-class goalscorers.

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Lacazette scored 14 goals and added another four assists in the Premier League. That is the highest total number of goals and assists in the first season of any Arsenal player in the Premier League era. Aubameyang, meanwhile, scored a goal every 105.8 minutes, ten in total, and also added four assists to his impressive tally. It was a season in which both hinted at greater things in the future.

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But there is a problem. They both play the same position, centre-forward. In the modern game, there is a decreasing number of systems that play with more than one centre-forward. And Unai Emery has almost exclusively played with just one striker. Why would he change now?

Moreover, Emery seemingly has a clear plan in his head of how he wants Arsenal to play, the tactics that he will implement and the approach that he and his players will take. It is reasonable to assume that that system will be similar to the systems that he has played in the past, most of them being lone-striker ones.

As such, it seems clear to me that only one of Lacazette and Auabameyang will get to play in their most-preferred position.

The pair proved that they are capable of playing with one another in a lone-striker system last season, with Aubameyang shifted out to the left flank and Lacazette through the middle, but I am not sure that Aubameyang would be happy if Emery stationed him out of the middle for a full season. It was temporary accommodation, not a suburban, family home.

Aubameyang, I believe, will want to play through the middle. He is a goalscorer. His game revolves around goals. And goals come from being in the right place at the right time. That is requisite on being in the middle, not shunted out to the flank, even if Aubameyang is a good enough player to score from out wide.

Similarly, however, Lacazette will not be happy if Emery does choose to select Aubameyang through the middle. That will almost certainly drop the Frenchman to the bench, not a role he would have been expecting after a club-record, £47-million move just a year ago.

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Whatever Emery chooses, the only way he can satisfy both Lacazette and Aubameyang is to play a two-striker system. I cannot see that happening. He will have to upset one of them, whether he wants to or not.