Arsenal: Aubameyang has key upper hand on Harry Kane

Arsenal’s thrilling and deserved draw against Liverpool was largely without the services of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. We get it.

Arsenal have a special player in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. He has been special his entire career and has always been one of the best strikers in the world. This year, he has caught fire and is tied for the Premier League lead in goals scored with seven.

What makes it such a special tally though is, as bad as this sounds, other than the goals, he really doesn’t do anything. He’s like a luxury item, more or less, but a luxury item that pays significant dividends.

Against Liverpool we saw, from the other side of the spectrum, that what Aubameyang is to this club isn’t really a question – he’s a bonus item.

Against Liverpool, Aubameyang did very little. he did so little, that not even his usually exuberant spirit could hide his disappointment as he sank to the bench, without have made much of an impact on the match itself. He was offside twice, took four poor touches, didn’t complete a single dribble and didn’t manage a shot on target either.

He just wasn’t all there.

And yet the Gunners didn’t suffer. Their attack got the cutting edge it needed from Alexandre Lacazette. They got the creativity they needed from Mesut Ozil. They got the speed they needed from the fullbacks and all in all, Aubameyang wasn’t missed.

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When he came off, I shrugged. Nothing lost, something to gain. I thought Danny Welbeck had a better shot at impacting the match anyway.

It’s a shame that Aubameyang wasn’t able to do more. Perhaps he could have been the difference maker, but in the end, it was a fair result barely, if at all, impacted by the Gabonese strikers presence.

Which is on the contrary to Tottenham and their dependence on Harry Kane. When Kane doesn’t score, the Spurs struggle. He didn’t score against City, they lost. He didn’t score against Liverpool, they lost. He didn’t score against Watford, they lost. He didn’t score against Inter, they lost.

Aubameyang, who has scored more goals than Kane, doesn’t have that same give and take. If he doesn’t give, the Gunners don’t need to take anything from him. That’s not to say Spurs don’t have other options, but when you stack them side by side, Kane and Aubameyang are meant to be top scorers.

But unlike Kane and the Spurs, when Aubameyang doesn’t score, it isn’t the end of the world.