Arsenal and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang: About that Golden Boot…

Arsenal have a real Golden Boot contender in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyan, and he’s still in the race, but what does it actually mean to the club?

I’m not going to lie, the idea of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang winning the Premier League Golden Boot is enough to make me giddy. Arsenal haven’t had a true contender for nearly a decade now, and there’s no hiding from how prolific Aubameyang can be.

But in terms of how important it is to the club, you can tell that there is literally zero impetus on it, and for that, we should actually be grateful.

Take the Newcastle match, for instance. Unai Emery had a mostly full squad at his disposal after a lengthy lay-off and rather than unleash all his big guns, he unleashed Alexandre Lacazette and kept Golden Boot contender Aubameyang on the bench (presumably because of illness). There was some fuming, because there is always going to be, but in time, we saw that there was nothing inherently wrong with the decision, except for those who are hungry for Aubameyang to win the Boot.

But there doesn’t seem to be any grand endeavor to get Aubameyang to this individual accolade, and I don’t think you’d see the man himself going out of the way either. Even when he came into the match, he was doing far more passing than shooting and dribbling.

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It was his headed ball that lead to the conclusive second goal from Lacazette, who isn’t a Golden Boot contender, but is one of the most valuable players in the league itself.

So is there anything else we still need to say about the Golden Boot race? I hate for it to sound like that I’m backing out of it’s importance just because Aubameyang is falling behind, because that really isn’t the case. He can score five goals in two matches and be right back into it just like that.

But there’s just the feeling of something more important going on at the club – like the Boot would be nice, but wholesome team play is far more important, no matter who puts the finishing touches on the goal – an honor that varies so much, which makes it that much more exciting.

If Aubameyang gets back into the race for the Boot, of course I’ll be cheering for him to score more goals. But I’l still be rooting more for that beautiful attacking play that can sometimes poke it’s head out and, if Ozil or Mkhitaryan or Iwobi pokes home before Aubameyang can, then who’s going to complain?

Aubameyang won’t, I’ll tell you that much.