Arsenal vs Bournemouth: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang or bust

Arsenal’s attack is the main draw, but they haven’t found their footing yet. As such, it’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang or bust yet again in this one.

Ask me who on this Arsenal attack I have complete faith in and I will ever-so-hesitantly say, “Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.” Maybe you’d wait to see who I would say next, but you’d be disappointed, because there is no next. And the only reason I’d be hesitant is because I wouldn’t want to blow my one sure-bet so early in the list.

But alas, that’s where we currently are with this attack. When it comes to who we can 100% count on, the only person you can conclusively say is the Gabonese striker. Which is a far cry from where we wanted to be this year, isn’t it? Sure, I would say Alexandre Lacazette too, if he was healthy.

The point is, though, this has become the Aubameyang show. Nicolas Pepe? Hasn’t acclimated yet. He could do absolutely anything, but he definitely can’t be counted on yet.

Bukayo Saka has been tremendous, but it’s a bit too early in his tenure to say that we can definitively rely on him to be one thing or another. He’s still a bit of a wild card.

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And despite my initial high on Dani Ceballos, he has yet to solidify himself in the starting XI as a reliable contributor. Much like Pepe, at this early point in his time at the Emirates, he’s capable of anything.

If we’re lucky, they’ll all click, we’ll win 5-0, and no one will ever remember that this article existed.

But the fact that we only know for sure that Aubameyang will provide is a bit nervy. And that doesn’t even factor in how, last year, Aubameyang was a hit-or miss guy. I try not to think too much about that, because he’s been so damn good this season and at the end of last season, but it’s true. He wasn’t someone I would call reliable not that long ago.

Now though, he’s doing more than just scoring. He’s doing a whole hell of a lot, and while that’s awesome, it’s also something that we need to amend. Maybe through Saka or Pepe, or maybe we’ll have to wait until Lacazette is back, but it has to come from somewhere.

Until then, though, at least we have him, and at least he’s damn amazing.