Arsenal: Harry Kane a realistic mark for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

Arsenal have their own hitman up front in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and it is time we expect out of him what Harry Kane does regularly.

Arsenal spent four years with Olivier Giroud as the sole option up front. I am a huge proponent of Giroud, even when he isn’t scoring goals, because I love what he brings to the club, but it was a crime to never give him a striking mate.

Giroud himself asked for one at one point, yet he was never answered. Instead, he remained alone at the front of the formation, criticized when he couldn’t score because, come on now, he’s a striker. Strikers score goals.

That all changed in January with the sale of Giroud and the purchase of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. The Gabonese international knocked home ten goals in less than half a season with a new club, encompassing just 1000 minutes.

Meaning that if you factor in 3000 minutes with more acclimation and better surroundings, it’s not unrealistic to think that Aubameyang can score 30+ goals next season. And yes, I can say that honestly. It’s not crazy at all.

It feels weird having a striker actually capable of leading the entirety of the Premier League in goals. For as much as I loved having Giroud, I knew he was never going to win a Golden Boot.

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Aubameyang is a different story. Ray Parlour thinks that Aubameyang can challenge Harry Kane down the road, and I’m of the exact same opinion. However, in my eternal optimism, I don’t see why he can’t be expected to score more, given that he has proven in the past that he can, in fact, score more.

Normally I’d be over here tempering expectations so as not to get our hopes up, but not for Aubameyang. His numbers last year, combined with his past performance in the Bundesliga, make 30+ goals a fathomable, if not expected, reality.

Not to mention that he has a hell of a lot of resources around him to help him get to that mark. Not that Kane doesn’t, but the Gunners will always be the better team, in perpetuity.

In all seriousness though, if you look at this Gunner attack contrasted with the attack around Kane, it just feels more explosive, more capable of striking hard, fast and without remorse. We have yet to see it in effect for a full season, but it’s hard to imagine an outcome where they aren’t effective. The personnel is there, the philosophy is there. Now all they have to do is get out there and do it.

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And in the end, Aubameyang will score more than Kane. I think we should bank on that.

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