Arsenal: 3 reasons why Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is not a striker

2. He does not like to get involved

Aubameyang is a natural goalscorer. He likes to play on the shoulder of the defence, get in the box with regularity, and score goals. He is not interested in link-up play or clever combinations or even creating chances. He wants to score, and he is superb at it.

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But Arteta’s system demands a very different type of centre-forward. Unlike at Dortmund when Aubameyang could play on the shoulder in a vicious counter-attacking set-up with plentiful service from midfield and out wide, under Arteta, Arsenal want to dominate possession, control proceedings, and dictate play as a result.

Aubameyang as a centre-forward limits their capacity to do that. In the Premier League, Aubameyang has averaged 32.3 touches per game as a lone striker. He simply does not want to receive the ball regularly because that means he is being taken away from where he is most likely to score and most dangerous, the penalty area.

As a goal-poaching striker whose movement is fluent and sharp and his anticipation provides him with plenty of opportunities, there are few better in the world than Aubameyang. But Arteta wants his striker to get involved in play, as increasingly the way in modern football, and Aubameyang has little interest in that.