Arsenal: Can we talk about Lacazette replacing Aubameyang?

Arsenal aren’t going to see both of their superstar strikers anytime soon, according to Unai Emery, so can we talk about one replacing the other?

So, Unai Emery has leveled with us Arsenal fans. He told us that he didn’t have plans of playing both Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette together. And there was a great, collective sigh.

But his philosophy, and the reasoning behind all of it, was sound enough to convince me that he’s doing the right thing, even if I have to say that through clenched teeth (clenched fingers?). I won’t fault the guy for having a plan. And I won’t fault the plan until we see it reach it’s full fruition.

That said, we have to see Lacazette play. The guy is wound up like a top to make an impact and thus far, he has been one of the better attacker son the club, right up there with Alex Iwobi (wow, that’s uncomfortable to say).

As such, since we aren’t going to be seeing the two of them out there together, except in cases of substitutions, are we then going to be driven to talk about starting Lacazette over Aubameyang? Because that’s a thought I never expected to explore.

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But now that I am, I am actually going to go ahead and advocate for Lacazette to start over Aubameyang. If not just for Cardiff City. I’ve gone in depth about how this match favors Lacazette over his counterpart, but the idea of replacing goes deeper than that.

As of right now, who has earned it more? Sorry, but that’s Lacazette. He’s been a much more positive presence on the pitch and Aubameyang is in a drought. Maybe it now falls on Lacazette to be the driving force, and to lift Aubameyang up, as the Gabonese did to his mate last season.

Whatever the case, if Emery’s stance is going to stay consistent, we have to start having this conversation, and I think that resonates with how Aubameyang was taken off for Danny Welbeck against West Ham. Ineffectiveness, no matter the person responsible for it, has to be questioned in the form of replacement. That includes Aubameyang, even if we don’t want it to.

We wanted two fantastic strikers, we have them. Now they have to be played off of each other since they aren’t going to be played together. That’s where we’re at now so let’s just jive with it.