Arsenal: Replacing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang easier than you think

Arsenal have been massively blessed by the service of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, but replacing him isn’t going to be as difficult as it seems.

Arsenal finally saw a return to the Golden Boot award thanks to the first full year of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and this year, he’s right back in the running. His ability to score goals, even in the midst of poor runs, has made him one of the most prolific scorers in the world, and he’s right here, with our red and white.

That said, with his contract set to run up in the summer of 2021, a decision has to come, and it has to come soon. Aubameyang has shown an admirable dedication to the club and Mikel Arteta has spoken about how pleased he is about it, and about his own desire to keep Aubameyang, but with Barcelona and Real Madrid both sniffing around, it’s time to be practical.

The big question is how do you replace him. And I’m here to tell you that it really isn’t hard.

Surprisingly, I am pleased with the five options The Sun published as potential Aubameyang replacements. Among them were Olivier Giroud and Raul Jimenez, two guys who I think most fans would scoff at as not being “big enough” signings.

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But that’s just the thing. We don’t need a big signing. Not even. All we need is a guy who can competently lead the line. Or, if we keep hold of Alexandre Lacazette, we need a proper winger who can do the Aubameyang work on the left.

The thing is, we already have the latter. We already have Gabriel Martinelli, who I have the utmost faith in. More than any new signing. We also already have Bukayo Saka and Reiss Nelson, both of whom are clamoring for more time in attacking capacities.

If you want to talk about striker support, I get it. We haven’t seen enough of Eddie Nketiah yet to justify putting it all on him.

Spend a little to bring in a Giroud or a Jimenez, or a Luka Jovic (back off, Tottenham) and call it a day. Aubameyang scores goals, sure, but so does Pepe, Martinelli, Lacazette on a good day. We have goal scorers.

Don’t think too hard about this. We can turn a massive profit on this swap that can be reinvested into the defense, where we actually do need to invest some big time cash.