Arsenal: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang missing one key ingredient

Arsenal have taken home wins in three games in a row, yet Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang still only has one goal. That’s because he’s missing something.

The attacking statistics at Arsenal are in a bit of an odd place. They have scored ten goals as a team. One was an own goal, and the other nine have been scored by nine different people, giving the club nine top goal scorers.

That’s kind of cool and all, but it’s a far cry from what was supposed to happen. What was supposed to happen was Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was going to shoot out to the golden bot lead, scoring goals seemingly at will.

That could still happen, and it probably will, but for now, Aubameyang is hanging out, like everyone else, with one goal and a whole lot of unsatisfying individual performances. But, on the bright side, it’s pretty simple to understand why that’s happening.

Aubameyang and Mesut Ozil have something in common – they both require certain specifications to be at their best. They aren’t DIY-ers and they certainly aren’t the types of players that can take the game into their own hands and turn things around.

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In short, Aubameyang needs people around him to make him a better player. In some instances, he has had that. Alexandre Lacazette set him up for his one goal and it was beautifully set up and beautifully taken. And the Gabonese striker has had some opportunity besides that, but has come up empty.

This reeks of someone trying to find his support. Aubameyang’s missing ingredient is consistency behind him. Give games into the season and the combined trio of Ozil, Mkhitaryan and Ramsey only have one combined assist. None of those three, the primary creators, is creating over two chances per game.

There have not been enough opportunities for Aubameyang. Yes, he should have taken a couple chances better, and he could feasibly have three or four goals, but this is an occupational hazard of Aubameyang. He is going to miss chances, so you have to essentially drown him in chances, otherwise he will be left flustered.

Thankfully, this attack is starting to figure it out and find more cohesion. There are still questions to be answered regarding it, but the footwork is being put in to make this attack a better place for Aubameyang.

Which is good, because I really want him to score more than Harry Kane.