Arsenal: Maybe less Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is good

Arsenal had no poor individual performers against Chelsea, but maybe we learned something uncomfortable about Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Arsenal‘s win over Chelsea was as comprehensive as they come, such that there was not a single player who I would say didn’t pull their weight. Therefore, any criticism that I throw at any player is with this in mind – against Chelsea, it was no problem.

That said. There was one thing about Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang that started to irk at me as the match went on. Now, Aubameyang was impressive on the day. Surprisingly, he defended superbly, was arguably one of the best on the team, and had two of the best tackles that I’ve seen all year, both from defensive positioning.

But in the attack, he was throwing up obstacles for himself, and it made me start to question his involvement in the attack, and what role he is best-suited to play for the club.

Here’s the thing – the man has very specific talents. Speed and goal scoring, but the latter requires a lot of opportunities. He doesn’t dribble well. He doesn’t provide much in the air. His flicks are decent, but erratic (as most flicks often are). He’s better without the ball on counters, as he isn’t great at keeping hold, plus his touches often prove heavy.

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Overall, what I surmised was that Aubameyang is much better when you don’t give him the ball.

That sounds far worse than it actually is. Obviously he needs the ball to score (and often, with his enigmatic finishing).

The reason I bring it up is because I often criticize him when he isn’t involved in the match enough. And to some extent, that is justified, but I think against Chelsea I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t actually want him involved that much. At least not when it comes to handling the ball.

Let Lacazette, Xhaka, Ramsey and that lot handle the ball, and leave Aubameyang to worry about finding space in behind, or in the crevices of a defense, because he just isn’t good with the ball at his feet unless he is taking a shot.

Again, I don’t mean this to be a criticism, I just mean this to be a suggestion – play him up top where he isn’t asked to do much else than what he excels at. Because he isn’t going to suddenly learn to be better with the ball this late in his career.