Arsenal: It’s that time again for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

Arsenal will in some way, shape, or form use Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang against Watford, and I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention, but it’s that time.

As with any other match, Unai Emery has his hands full in terms of team selection against Watford. Doubly so because of Arsenal‘s loss to Everton and this being very similar circumstances.

The primary choice will come with how to stack up the midfield, but by extension, that also lends itself to a tough choice up top as well. Emery has traditionally gone with one striker in away matches, to better load up his midfield, and with the players available to him and the nature of Watford’s stout midfield, it’s likely he will do the same here.

Which leaves the question of which solo striker he opts for.

He’s gone with Alexandre Lacazette lately, and you’ll find no argument from anyone there. He’s the more rounded player, he’s more dynamic, he can just do more than Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and that being the case, it’s never a wrong decision to start Lacazette.

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That said, Lacazette has been a bit droopy in recent matches, as his finishing has been off and there haven’t been a lot of goals to come by.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, on the other hand, was the sharper of the two against Napoli, not to mention not being the striker primarily responsible for the squandered chances against Everton (although it’s not like anyone was good against Everton anyway).

If Unai Emery trusts the numbers, then all of this is adding up to a start for Aubameyang. Not just because of what I talked about above, but because of the fact that Aubameyang has gone four matches without a goal. Which ties with his other goalless droughts this year of four and four.

Aubameyang has gone scoreless in four before, as you can see, but he has never gone five. Meaning that if Emery trusts the odds, then you could say that it’s that time again for Aubameyang to start the other kind of streak, the one that vaults him back into competition for that Golden Boot.

Of course, I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, but there’s no hiding that Aubameyang’s return to form is conveniently coinciding with this little mathematical quandary that hints rather strongly that a goal is on the cards. What Emery does with that is his business, but sometimes it’s okay to trust the odds.