Arsenal Vs Brentford: Don’t sleep on Danny Welbeck’s value

Danny Welbeck scored twice in Arsenal’s 3-1 win over Brentford and is now the club’s top goalscorer. Do not sleep on his value as the third-choice striker.

In Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette, Arsenal have two of the best strikers in the Premier League. Perhaps only Manchester City with Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus can lay claim to a goalscoring pair as prolific as the Gunners’. But having two goalscorers, in the modern game, is not enough.

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You see, City, alongside Jesus and Aguero, also have Leroy Sane, Raheem Sterling, Kevin de Bruyne, David Silva and others, all of which are expected to chip in with 10 – 20 goals across the season. Not only do they have two elite goalscorers, but they also have goals dripping throughout the squad.

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It is often these preliminary players that are the difference between a good and great team. Liverpool have improved under Jurgen Klopp because they have alleviated their reliance to score goals on Luis Suarez and spread it throughout the squad. Similarly, Spurs may have Harry Kane leading the line, but Christian Eriksen, Son Heung-Min and Dele Alli all scored nine or more Premier League goals last term. Arsenal, on the other hand, only had four players score more than five goals. And one of them is Alexis Sanchez who is no longer with the team.

Notably, one of those players is not Danny Welbeck. He scored five that year, adding another three in the Europa League, and one each in the EFL and FA Cup. Now, there were injuries to factor in. Welbeck only made 12 league starts, 28 appearances in total. But even so, his goal output was not quite at the level that a top-four-chasing team requires.

However, this year, there has been a change. In 42 minutes of league action, he has scored once already. In one Europa League start, he has also scored once. And now, after Wednesday night’s 3-1 win over Brentford in the third round of the EFL Cup, he has now scored twice in one start in the domestic cups.

Welbeck has four goals in total on the season. That is equal with Aubameyang and one ahead of Lacazette. It would be naive to expect him to keep pace with the pair throughout the whole of the season. He will play fewer minutes than both, especially in the Premier League. But he is easily on pace to score 15 goals assuming that he stays fit for the majority of the year. That is a valuable piece to the puzzle.

It is very easy to focus on those who almost exclusively start. On Aubameyang and Lacazette. They are the record signings, the big names, the high-profile stars, the ones who will grab the headlines. But there is great value in depth, and in Welbeck, Arsenal have it.

Do not sleep on the 27-year-old’s importance to this team.