Arsenal: No one is questioning Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

Arsenal fans were frustrated by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s tame penalty that would have won the match, but no one dare question him, and rightfully so.

Something about the way Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang walked up to that penalty was just telling. There was a so little confidence and no matter how much that goal would have meant to Arsenal, it just wasn’t meant to be.

There was a bit of a discussion after he missed that penalty over whether he should be one of our penalty takers at all, and generally, it was a split reaction. No clear majority one way or the other, and within a day, all that talk had died down, there were more important things to talk about, like the refereeing, or Mauricio Pochettino claiming bad luck yet again.

I don’t want to be dramatic about this, but nothing else would have mattered had Aubameyang buried that penalty. Everything would have been justified, canceled out, made up for, however you want to say it. Everything would have changed, and it’s the one thing we can kind of take ownership of. Bury that penalty, we win the game, nothing else matters.

It didn’t happen, and that lack of chatter afterwards, to me, showcases more of a positive than a negative.

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No self-respecting fan is going to go on a tangent against the Gabonese forward. It’s not like going on a tangent against Granit Xhaka or Shkodran Mustafi, where multitudes will back you because, you know, it’s cool to rail against an easy target.

This is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who carries a reputation well worth his weight in gold. There has rarely been a moment of question regarding Aubameyang and his right to be at this club, to be headlining this club, nor the wages that he makes which, while not Ozil-esque, are pretty hefty.

This falls on the opposite side of the spectrum as a Xhaka or Mustafi mistake because of the unanimous support that fans find behind a guy like Aubameyang, and the same would have been true had it been Lacazette missing the penalty – support, not criticism.

I just wish that this went both ways. That when Xhaka makes a poor tackle, fans would rally behind him like they do Aubameyang. But this is a pipe dream, I know.

At the end of the day, though, at least some players have the support that they deserve, and make no mistake about it, Aubameyang deserves it. But so do Xhaka, Mustafi, Leno, Kolasinac, Ozil, Mkhitaryan and… well everyone.