Arsenal: Hey Alexandre Lacazette, come save your friend

Arsenal’s strikers wet the bed against Tottenham, but Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang did it again against Rennes. All eyes on you, Alexandre Lacazette.

I made a point before the match that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang really needed to move on from Arsenal‘s 1-1 draw against Tottenham. He is an elite striker, so no matter how bad that one penalty miss was, the fans weren’t going to hold it against him, as he’s done so much good for us throughout the season.

Still, the palpable devastation on his face after that miss and the subsequent final whistle is still burned into my brain. Aubameyang was thoroughly beaten, and I hadn’t seen him like that for as long as I can remember, going back to his Dortmund days.

Rennes was important for him to get back on the right track. He needed to score a goal – just one – and find his way back to smiling and feeling good about himself, because I couldn’t stand seeing him like he was after Tottenham.

He failed. He was, yet again, sloppy with the ball, giving away possession with heavy touches and Lukaku-esque ball control that, even for Aubameyang, was uncharacteristic. He isn’t renowned for his touches, but this was something else.

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He really needs a confidence booster, and I have to turn to Alexandre Lacazette for that.

It was about this time last year that Lacazette was stripped of his confidence and Aubameyang stepped in to give his buddy the lift he needed. In that case, it was just a matter of Aubameyang passing up the chance at a hat trick to let Lacazette slot home a penalty, which might not be the best idea for Lacazette to reciprocate, but there are other ways to pull Aubameyang back into the right frame of mind, because we sorely need it.

With Manchester United looming and Aubameyang devoid of confidence, we need Lacazette to serve two purposes.

1. Be that striker that we can rely on again, because as fans, our confidence is a bit higgledy-piggledy in regards to Aubameyang.
2. Bring Aubameyang back from the void. Set him up for an unmissable goal. Give him a chance to succeed. Because he needs a boost right now.

These are our two most dynamic and necessary players, we can’t have both of them struggling with their confidence, because then what?

Manchester United was always going to be interesting, even more so now that things went so sour against Rennes.