Arsenal: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is simply clogged up

Three matches into the Arsenal season and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang hasn’t scored. So do we worry? Absolutely not. Just wait.

There was a brief spike of concern at Arsenal when Unai Emery admitted that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was lacking in confidence as the miniature goal drought pushed on. He has now gone three matches, and about 250 minutes, without a goal and, naturally, people are starting to raise their eyebrows a bit.

After last season, when he knocked home ten goals in half a season, the world was expected of the Gabonese hitman. I think I predicted anywhere between 30 and 50 goals on several occasions.

And I stand by that reason. Because no one in their right mind would bet against one of the most prolific goal-scorers in Europe’s top five divisions over the past decade. Every single year, Aubameyang has had his foot in for gobs and gobs of goals and, in this transitional season, with a new era ushering in at the Emirates, it’s no different.

If anything, the slow start might be even better for him in the long run. Because in the end, we know he is going to score. Consider it like a garden hose. When you bend it and block it up, it stores up water that then erupts.

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Aubameyang’s goals are around the corner. Honestly, what’s got him so clogged up now is simply that this attack can’t get its head on straight. Aubameyang requires service and space and while he has plenty of the latter, the former has eluded him as both creative attacking ‘superstars’ on either side of him continue to struggle with their end of the bargain.

He has had very few chances at all, really. The only one that he noticeably should have scored was the wide open one against Chelsea. That chance aside, he’s been starved of opportunity.

Like everything else in the new Emery era, Aubameyang just needs time. Time to sort himself out. Time to gel with the new system. Time for Emery to figure out how best to situate the attack to benefit his most useful players (hint: it probably involves Alexandre Lacazette).

It’s normally the case with proven stars that when they break that struggle-wall, they shatter it. I think of Lacazette, in his second year following his breakout year for Lyon. He struggled off the blocks but by the end of the season, you couldn’t even tell by the numbers.

Aubameyang will still score 30. You can bet on that.