Arsenal Vs Cardiff City: Thank God for goalscorers

Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored Arsenal’s two goals in Tuesday night’s 2-1 win over Cardiff City. In a match where chances were few and far between, the need for goalscorers is tremendous. Thankfully, the Gunners have two.

Sometimes, it just doesn’t click. It is difficult to say why. It isn’t really anybody’s fault. It just doesn’t quite happen. You cannot play your best every time you take to the pitch. That is just life. For Arsenal, that was most certainly the case in Tuesday night’s 2-1 win over Cardiff City.

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They simply could not get anything going. Their passing was slow and ponderous, Cardiff’s defenders were stout and physical, getting away with tackles that pushed the boundaries, flowing moves were difficult to find with attacks often stalling because of a backwards pass or loose first touch.

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Whatever the Gunners tried, it just didn’t work. And sometimes, that is going to happen. There isn’t much point scrutinising why, if it happens irregularly. Analysis won’t really tell you anything. It is just a natural result of form. Sometimes it clicks. At other times, it doesn’t.

It is in these non-clicking games that the ability to win is above all else. As Liverpool have proven all year long, despite their underwhelming performances, they have continued to relentlessly win matches. They are now on the verge of a seven-point lead at the top of the table and a first title in more than two decades as a result.

Arsenal were able to do the same against Cardiff. They won the match. And much of that is down to their two leading goalscorers, Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

The latter stepped up first. After Sead Kolasinac was felled in the penalty area, Aubameyang calmly placed the ball on the spot and slotted it into the bottom corner. Such were the difficulties in creating chances up until that point, it felt like a must-score penalty. The pressure was on. The result, though, was never in doubt.

And then Lacazette scored with a thumping strike, past and through the futile attempts to block by Neil Etheridge. The goal came from nothing, powering into space that shouldn’t really have been there before unleashing his right-footed piledriver. But that is what goalscorers can provide you with: a cold, calm, clinical ruthlessness under pressure, and the ability to score from anywhere, at any time.

It is then these type of matches, where the attacking play seems clunky and the passing is not quite clicking, that goalscorers come into their own. Lacazette and Aubameyang almost singlehandedly won this game for Arsenal. That is not the first time that I have written that sentence this season.

Arsenal have plenty of problem areas to solve. Many important positions require significant investment this summer. But striker is not one of them. In Lacazette and Aubameyang, they might well have the best centre-forward pair in the Premier League. That makes them dangerous in every match they play, even when it isn’t quite clicking.