Arsenal: Keeping Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang a mistake

This summer, Arsenal decided to keep Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. As this season is progressing, that decision is looking like a bigger and bigger mistake.

When Arsenal signed Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for a then club-record £56 million, there was an equal sense of confusion and excitement. He was a prolific goalscorer at the highest level, surely worth far more than what the club paid to secure his services, but equally, the Gunners had just broken their club-record fee on a centre-forward just six months prior, when they signed Alexandre Lacazette for £47 million.

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In the near two years that Aubameyang has been at the club, he has invariably been the best player on the pitch. While Lacazette was named Player of the Season last year, Aubameyang was the top goalscorer. That was after scoring ten goals in 13 Premier League games the season prior. This year, he has continued that scintillating scoring pace with eight goals from 11 league games.

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Aubameyang has routinely rescued his team time and time again, his goals often coming from nowhere as rifles yet another tremendous finish into the bottom corner despite the collective performance lacking any creativity or service for him to truly flourish. Unai Emery has shunted him out to the wing, thrust too much of the scoring responsibility onto his shoulders, and yet Aubameyang has responded brilliantly, even being named vice-captain this season with his leadership skills coming to the fore.

And yet, when Arsenal had the chance to sell their best and most influential player in the summer and chose not to, they made a mistake. For however brilliant Aubameyang is, he should have been sold a few months ago.

In Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Wolves, Emery again proved that he cannot squeeze Aubameyang and Lacazette into the same team without sacrificing one to the wing. And he is right. While Aubameyang has the ability to play on the left, cutting inside akin to the Liverpool wide attackers, his more natural game sees him play through the middle, on the shoulder of the defence, scoring goals. Using him out wide upsets the balance of the team.

And yet, Lacazette and Aubameyang are Arsenal’s two best players. Surely you cannot drop one of them, right? Without significant spending to replace them, no, you cannot, and so Emery justifiably feels compelled to crowbar them into the same starting XI. This time he used a 4-4-2 diamond with Mesut Ozil in behind Lacazette and Aubameyang. Predictably, it did not work.

Similarly, a flat 4-4-2, while a more balanced system with natural wingers, is better but not suitable for modern football, lacking the numbers in midfield to exercise consistent control over matches through extended periods of possession. It is an easily pressed system.

It is very difficult to squeeze two out-and-out centre-forwards into the same team, as Emery’s futile attempts are proving this season. And so, in Lacazette and Aubameyang, Arsenal’s two best players who cannot be dropped, cause a tactical problem that cannot be solved through changing the system. One of them, then, should be sold.

So the question quickly becomes, ‘which one?’ The answer is quite clear. Aubameyang is 30, two years Lacazette’s senior, is not as adept in open play as his strike counterpart and does isolate himself when playing as a lone striker, and is in the final two years of a deal, one that he is now refusing to extend with the club’s Champions League status up in the air. Of the two, who to keep is not a difficult question to answer.

But the time to sell is not this January — it rarely is. It is also not next summer, when Aubameyang has just a year remaining on his deal and will be 31, his value substantially diminished as a result. The time to sell was three months ago, when the market was still there, the value was still high, and the opportunity to reinvest in a genuine winger remained.

Aubameyang is arguably Arsenal’s best player. He is essential, one of the most important players in world football. And yet, in choosing to hold on, the club made a mistake, and now, it is coming back round to bite.