Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang era is over

Arsenal Are a Better Team Without Aubameyang

Where once Aubameyang was a fundamental and highly important part of this team, he has been usurped, not by one individual, but by a total team mentality that the club didn’t have in the early Arteta days, any more than it did during the days of Unai Emery.

When Auba doesn’t play now, the team is not trying to replace him with a number nine, so much as they are playing a total, complete and balanced football match where almost all of their players can be considered to be threats to score. If it is not Alexandre Lacazette it is Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith Rowe, Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Martinelli, or someone else.

This is precisely how the best clubs play the modern game, and Pep Guardiola and Manchester City are prime examples of this. While they have Gabriel Jesus, that is really all they have in terms of central striking options; with the departure of Sergio Aguero many believed that the team would get either Harry Kane or Cristiano Ronaldo. When they failed to, some wondered how the team would score, and when they witnessed how the team scored, they wondered if that was sustainable over so many competitions across an entire year.

Yet judging by the first place Citizens, they are not doing too badly. They have such interchangeability, such vision, such confidence and such fun when they play, that everyone turns into a number nine when they have the ball in front of the net. This brilliant football is why other teams, even the best of England and Europe, are always chasing Pep and complimenting his teams, even when they fail to win it all.

Arsenal wants this to be their style as well, and while Aubameyang is a brilliant number nine when he is on form, he doesn’t always play with the same ambition that Lacazette has shown since Auba has fallen out of favor. He doesn’t even always show the finishing ability that young Eddie Nketiah demonstrated recently, and as Auba remains such a valuable asset to teams that still need a main, central striker match in and out, resources can be earned from his sale, while opportunities can be created for other players.

If and when Auba leaves, then Lacazette should be offered a place on the club going forward, with Nketiah and Balogun as supplementary strikers, unless, preferably, a transfer coup can be engineered for some talent from the Italian, German or other leagues around Europe. While I for one will be sad to see the Gabonese number nine leave, it might all just be a situation where all parties have outgrown one another, and a place like Barcelona might offer the player a welcome opportunity, while the Gunners salvage some money in the whole ordeal.

There will be no easy way to say goodbye to a player who has done so much for this team at a time when things were at some of their lowest points, but that seems to be exactly where this relationship is currently headed. Aubameyang, with all of his Premier League goals, his two trophies with the club, and Europa League chances, will be remembered as a very valuable transition piece for Arsenal as they went from Wenger, to Emery, to Arteta.

While he might still be able to regain his spot on the squad, it, for all intents and purposes, appears that the circumstances have simply changed with this team and with its formerly most prized player; each will have to adjust accordingly, and there could be real, serious benefits for each should they decide to do just that.