Arsenal: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang really should play up top

Arsenal have been getting some good mileage out of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as a winger, but he really should be playing up top, shouldn’t he?

Leave it to Arsene Wenger to be handed one of the best strikers in the world and, rather than opt for a two-striker set at Arsenal, move him out wide to play as a winger.

Similarly, leave it to Wenger to make the shift work.

There aren’t many strikers who do what Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang does as well as he does it, and that is something we haven’t been able to say in quite some time here at the Emirates. Yet we are having to get used to him playing out wide and, honestly, it’s not the worst thing in the world.

After all, Ronaldo is a winger, isn’t he? And Messi was for awhile too. When you’re that good, sometimes the position just doesn’t matter, you are going to have your impact regardless of where they put you on the pitch.

And Aubameyang was acclimating well. He was tracking back, defending admirably, and didn’t look wholly put-off by his new position and what it entailed.

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That doesn’t mean we should be getting stuck on it, though. In fact, I think it’s pretty important that we get Aubameyang back up top in a two-striker set for the same reason that I wanted him there from the start. You play your best players in their best position.

Aubameyang has speed aplenty, but that doesn’t mean he should be tracking up and down the pitch, helping on defense and gallivanting as a pseudo-fullback. Let him play to his strengths. Let him make the runs towards goal and conserve himself for that. That’s why he’s here isn’t it?

Not to mention the fact that Aubameyang himself said he wants to play up top again, and not out wide, and keeping someone like that happy when it is also rather practical for your team, well, that’s pretty important also. The last thing we want is for Aubameyang to get disenchanted.

Lastly, it’s not like we can’t afford to let him play up top, next to Alexandre Lacazette. In a 4-4-2 set, you can have Ozil and Mkhitaryan out wide feeding the two of them and with Lacazette’s skill set, he’s always going to be dropping deeper anyway, playing as a sort of false nine.

Maybe it’s not an immediate priority, as we have to sort out how best to make this team work, but in the long run, we really should be looking for a way to get Aubameyang back up top. If that involves buying actual wingers, then so be it, we need to buy actual wingers.