Arsenal: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang heard us, and he answered

Arsenal needed to compensate for the loss of Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang wanted to make it clear that he’s got this.

All prematch going into Watford, I had my mind on two players—Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Nicolas Pepe. These were the two guys Arsenal needed to cope with the injury to Alexandre Lacazette. Pepe to create the chances and Aubameyang to take them.

Without Lacazette, I expected Aubameyang to have a bit of a drop off, as he has in the past, but we still asked of him one thing—take your chances. None of that missed opportunity stuff that can haunt him from time to time.

Against Watford, it’s safe to say that he heard the call for help and he answered. Aubameyang had two clear chances in the first half alone and he took them both as well as they could be taken. He took them so well that of his 15 touches, two were goals. 13% of the time he touched the ball in the first half, he scored.

You can’t get much more efficient than that. And not just that, but when the game started to deteriorate (it never takes long), Aubameyang stepped up in other ways.

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Knowing how bad this team is defending on the counter, Aubameyang found it in himself to sneak back from his forward position and nip Watford’s counters in the bud before they could even get started. It was a show of determination and passion that so few others displayed.

This match was awful to watch because the script was so obvious before it even happened, but Aubameyang’s solo answering of the call was enough to leave a little glimmer of a smirk on my face. At least until I remember Sokratis and Luiz.

When a key player like Lacazette goes down, you have to ask it of your other superstars to make the absence not as poignant as it might be. It wasn’t Lacazette’s absence that hurt us here. Aubameyang saw to that. Aubameyang played the striker role in a very similar way that Lacazette would have and the impact was definitely not lost. It was just the same old problem of the defense screwing the pooch again, and that would have happened with or without Lacazette, as we all know too well.

At the end of the day, we know that Aubameyang can be counted on, and this was a big step up from him. For what that’s worth.