Arsenal and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang: Play it slow

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang missed Wednesday night’s trip to Wolves thanks to a small sinus procedure. As he makes his return, Arsenal must play it slow.

Sunday lunchtime, Arsenal travel to Leicester City needing to win to keep their top-four hopes alive. At this stage in the season, there is no margin for error, as the Gunners have discovered, much to their terror, with two successive losses to Crystal Palaces and Wolves in the past week. This is a must-win game.

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And so, it makes sense that Unai Emery should be willing to take a few risks with his team selection. It is not as if he must save his players for a long, gruelling season ahead, right? That’s all done with now.

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Well, perhaps not. Although the Leicester City match is indeed a must-win affair, so is Thursday night’s first leg in the semi-final of the Europa League against Valencia four days later. And so is the home match against Brighton and Hove Albion three days after. And the second leg against Valencia in a week on Thursday. And the final Premier League match of the season against Burnley. And, should they make it that far, the Europa League final. I think you might be beginning to get the picture.

All this said, the big selection dilemma that Emery must decipher this week is what he does with his strikers, particularly Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Aubameyang missed the trip to Wolves on Wednesday after undergoing a small procedure on his sinus, Alexandre Lacazette playing the lone striker role and looking painfully isolated as he did. According to Arsenal.com, Aubameyang is being assessed ahead of the weekend’s trip to Leicester.

Emery has a decision to make. Does he rush Aubameyang back into the starting line-up, knowing that Lacazette needed the support of an attacking foil but risking further injury to his star player? Does he rest him altogether and take an extremely conservative approach? Or would a more balanced decision be wiser, leaving Aubameyang on the bench and turning to him should he be needed?

Ultimately, this decision depends on information that only Emery will have available to him: the true readiness of Aubameyang to play a professional football match and the risk of further injuring himself, if at all. For that reason, I cannot with any certainty say what I would do in Emery’s shoes.

But I can say this: take it slow. Yes, Leicester City is a must-win game. And yes, to expect to win it without Aubameyang is naive, especially away from home. But there is nothing wrong with leaving him on the bench and only using him as a last resort should a goal be required in the second half.

Arsenal cannot afford to lose Aubameyang for any more than they already have. He is too important and their depth is too limited. Making any decisions that put his availability in danger, then, seems too risky to me.