Arsenal: The nuanced brilliance of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored twice in Arsenal’s 3-1 win over Leicester City. His goals looked simple, but they were brilliant in their nuance.

It would be easy to overlook Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s two goals as tap-ins. Coming off the bench in a 5-1 win over Leicester City on Monday night, the Arsenal sealed the victory within five minutes of being introduced, scoring twice and sinking Leicester’s hopes of an away point.

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Neither goal, from the perspective of Aubameyang, at least, looked especially spectacular. They were tap-ins. He didn’t have a goalkeeper to beat on either attempt, simply side-footing the ball into an empty net, converting far-post square passes across the six-yard box. But these were brilliant goals, and not just because of the mastery of Mesut Ozil.

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The brilliance of Aubameyang does not come exclusively in his finishing, although he is a very pure striker of the ball. It comes in his intelligence, his awareness, his anticipation, and then the searing speed to burst into the space where the chance would soon come his way.

If you re-watch both goals from Monday night, you will see not only the speed of Aubameyang’s movement, but also the speed of his recognition, especially in comparison to the Leicester defenders that he is being ‘marked’ by.

For his first goal, for instance, as soon as Ozil receives the ball in the inside-right channel midway into the attacking half, with Hector Bellerin searing down the outside-right, Aubameyang is already on his bike. He knows where the chance will come. He simply has to beat the defender to the spot. And he did.

The second goal was eerily similar. As Ozil and Alexandre Lacazette combining to wonderful effect on the right side, slipping Ozil into the penalty area, Aubameyang is sneaking his way in from the left-wing position to again receive the ball at the far post from Ozil’s square flick around Kasper Schmeichel.

Both these goals are brilliant pieces of play from Aubameyang because of how simple he makes the finish for himself. He does not score many spectacular goals — not that he isn’t capable of doing so, more because he doesn’t need to, such is the quality of his anticipation and movement. He simply scores a whole lot of what look like easy ones.

Only Mohamed Salah has scored more Premier League goals since Aubameyang’s arrival in north London; only Sergio Aguero has a better goal-per-minute ration than Aubameyang in that same timeframe, excluding those who have played a small number of minutes.

It is so easy to ignore. But this nuanced brilliance is what makes such a prolific goalscorer. Arsenal have one of the best in the world. They should be thanking their lucky stars.