Arsenal: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang calms biggest Alexandre Lacazette fear himself

The biggest fear with starting Alexandre Lacazette is having to shift Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang out to the left wing. Well, the Arsenal striker has calmed those fears himself with his recent comments to ESPN.

It remains to be seen how Unai Emery will set his Arsenal team up for the majority of the season. We are just one game into the new campaign. And that game was against a unique team in the champions, Manchester City, who play in a different manner and at a different level to every other team in the division.

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But we did get one clue about how he might orientate his attacking options: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang started through the middle, with Alexandre Lacazette dropping to the bench and Henrikh Mkhitaryan fielded on the left flank. It didn’t really work.

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To Emery’s credit, he realised his mistake early in the second half, swiftly introducing Lacazette from off the bench, inserting him in the central striker position and moving Aubameyang out to the left flank. Arsenal immediately benefitted. Lacazette’s greater strength and lower centre of gravity meant he was more adept at holding the ball up. His presence attracted attention from the City defenders, providing Aubameyang with marginally more freedom to make runs into the channels behind the City defence, as evidenced by his offside goal late on.

It has been somewhat apparent to me throughout the summer and again on Sunday that Arsenal are a better team with Lacazette in it. The only fear with starting him is the requisite consequence of shifting Aubameyang out wide, a position that does not necessarily get the most out of him. But Aubameyang, in a recent interview with ESPN, has quelled those fears himself:

"“We [Aubameyang and Lacazette] really get on well. There is a spark between us when we are both on the pitch together. We look for each other, we saw it today [Sunday] against City when he came on. I don’t mind playing on the left if Laca is in the centre. We both want to do our best for the team.”"

I am sure that Emery felt that he needed to get the best out of Aubameyang when he first arrived in north London. That would likely have been one of his primary objectives. It makes sense. Aubameyang is one of the top strikers in world football with one of the best goal-to-game ratios over the past few seasons. Why not gear your team around such a prolific centre-forward?

But sometimes, it is better to set your team up with a little more nuance and cohesion than merely building around one player. Aubameyang is a great player, that is for sure. But Arsenal are a better team with him not necessarily in his best position. The fact that Aubameyang is cognizant of that fact and is happy to accept it is a measure of his character and self-awareness.

It remains to be seen whether Emery will indeed partner Aubameyang with Lacazette. He seemed willing to do so in the preseason and was happy to shift his team against City on Sunday. But will he be willing to start like that against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge? I certainly hope so. And I think Aubameyang might as well.