Arsenal: The ball’s in your court, Alexandre Lacazette

Arsenal’s two elite strikers were neck and neck for so long, but things have changed now, with Alexandre Lacazette due to retaliate soon.

Arsenal‘s attack is a beautiful thing capable of some pretty extraordinary attacking moves. And, right now, there are two main people converting those extraordinary attacking moves into actual tallies on the scoreboard, and those two are Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

After a slow start to the season in terms of individual statistics, these two were neck and neck in the goal tally so consistently that, up until the match against Leicester City, they had never finished a match with one or the other ahead.

They were tied at one goal. They were tied at two goals. They were tied at four goals. There was no separating these two. Even against Fulham, with Lacazette getting the start and Aubameyang on the bench, they came out even.

Leicester City was the same. Lacazette got the start, and looked to be the prime contender to leap ahead of his strike mate, but to the contrary, Aubameyang came on late in the game and scored two goals, to vault himself to six goals and leave Lacazette, for the first time all season, behind.

Both of these strikers are in the top ten goal scorers in the Premier League. They are both showcasing the ability to score whenever and wherever, which is all you can ask for from a striker – that constant threat at goal.

But with Aubameyang taking the lead – in a reserve role, no less – the ball is now in Lacazette’s court to fire back and retaliate.

Lacazette had to earn the starting role from Aubameyang, but once he earned it, there was no looking back. It was clear, beyond just the goals, that he could do so much for the club that he could even be relied upon to create, to string play together, and to drop deep, when necessary, to try to make things happen.

But Aubameyang has the goals to show for it. And with Unai Emery’s constant flipping of the script, his consistent changes and experimentation, there is no one safe. I mean, even Aubameyang has been kept out of the XI.

The competition goes beyond the goal tally. There is a position at stake here and, right now, Lacazette needs to strike back in the hard stats category. I want dual-Golden-Boot winners, and I won’t accept anything less.