Arsenal: Is the lack of a superstar finally a good thing?

Arsenal have a lot of stars on their team, some of whom could be superstars, but they don’t really have that guy. Is that a good thing?

Arsenal have spent about five years in the post-debt years, and they’ve made some bit time signings. Mesut Ozil, Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang stand out as the three main guys that could be accurately referred to as superstars.

But in terms of how it stands with the team itself, none of those three is that. Which is odd, because if you look at any top team in the Premier League, they all have that guy, the guy that everything is centered around.

Liverpool have Mo Salah. Chelsea have Eden Hazard. Tottenham have Harry Kane (I know, I said “top team” but for arguments sake, let’s include Spuds), Manchester City have Kevin De Bruyne( although maybe it’s unfair to not include Aguero and Silva) and Manchester United have, well, I guess you can say Paul Pogba.

Now, these clubs have other guys that work well alongside the superstar, but other than a few exceptions, I don’t think any of those respective teams trust another player more than they do that particular superstar.

And, for the most part, if you shut that guy down, you have a pretty good shot of shutting that team down as well.

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I don’t think Arsenal have that guy. They have many “that guys.” Aubameyang has waxed and waned all year, answering when called upon, but not in the capacity of a superstar. Ozil hasn’t played the part of superstar at all this year, and not at all recently either, going back to last year too.

Lacazette may be the closest thing we have to someone that we can’t really live without, but then again, not really. If he doesn’t produce, Aubameyang can. These are both world class strikers and the odds of keeping them both quiet are not that good.

Then you have to factor in Aaron Ramsey and Henrikh Mkhitaryan. The former of whom I would argue is our closest thing to an actual, bonafide superstar, but the club is clearly not nearly as dependent on him as they could be.

And Mkhitaryan, while capable of some special things, is probably a bit of a stretch to include in this conversation.

It’s working, I’d say. The difference between the team now and the team when Alexis and Ozil ran the show is the difference between having one predominant goal scorer and having ten guys already on the scoresheet in matchweek eight.