Arsenal: There is no “without Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang”

There is far too much commentary about what state Arsenal would be in without Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Who cares! We have him, don’t we?

SkySports published a stupid Premier League table that showed where Arsenal would be without Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang‘s goals. No surprises, they were in the relegation zone. What does that prove? Not a damn thing. It proves that SkySports wasted time on a stupid infographic.

Now, we have Ian Wright talking about where the Gunners would be without Aubameyang, and it’s all driving me nuts. There is absolutely nothing to be gained from having a narrative about where the club would be without a key man. All teams have key guys that they wouldn’t like to be without.

Where would Liverpool be without Mo Salah? Where would City be without Sergio Aguero? This is a pointless, endless narrative that establishes that your top goal scorer is an important player to your team.

For those that want to take it a step further and say that this is what Arsenal would be if Aubameyang left the club this summer, I again have to state the stupidity of this.

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If Aubameyang leaves this summer, which might well come to pass, depending on how the club finishes the season, you’d be crazy to think that we would just lose all of his goals. Like every single goal he scored could only have been scored by him and absolutely no one else.

Again, that’s just plain stupid. Even if we don’t sign anyone to replace him, and our attack next year shapes up with Nicolas Pepe on the right, Gabriel Martinelli or Bukayo Saka on the left and even Eddie Nketiah up front, we would still recoup at least a fraction of the goals Aubameyang scored just because we filled the position with someone else who is capable of turning home goals.

Naturally, this makes us ponder what would happen if the Gunners did lose Aubameyang, but if we lost Aubameyang, we’d probably also be losing Alexandre Lacazette, which would prompt the signing of at least one striker. That’s all we’d need. Give me Pepe and Saka and Martinelli and I have no doubts that the goals will flow, and then next year we can have an “if Arsenal didn’t have Gabriel Martinelli” graphic.

So next time someone starts an argument or statement with “if Arsenal didn’t have Aubameyang,” stop them right there and tell them to stuff it. It’s a pointless exercise.