AFTER Sunday’s breathless North London derby, Arsenal have amassed seven points from four games. The manner in which those points have been won has been very familiar. At Newcastle, Pierre Emerick Aubameyang scored the winning goal.
At home to Burnley, goals from Alexandre Lacazette and Aubameyang gave the Gunners the points and at home to Spurs, yes, you guessed it, goals from Lacazette and Aubameyang clawed back a two-goal deficit to gain a hard-earned draw.
Performances have been inconsistent from Unai Emery’s Arsenal pretty much since his appointment, but one consistent theme is the extent to which the team is reliant on its two star strikers. Now, all teams are reliant on very good attackers. Liverpool’s midfielders don’t score very often, but they don’t have to because of their world beating front three.
Arsenal’s Invincible team was as reliant on Thierry Henry as Manchester United’s treble team were on Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole. A team being reliant on its goalscorers for goals is an exercise in understatement – that’s what strikers are for. So is Emery’s obvious reliance on Aubameyang and Lacazette an issue? The answer is in the eye test, really.
“I think they can start together and they can play during the match as all three, it depends how we decide our game-plan, but I am very optimistic for that situation, but those three players, also Nelson, Mkhitaryan, Willock, Özil.”
– Unai Emery on Aubameyang, Lacazette and Pepe pic.twitter.com/TVAojz07ZU
— DailyAFC™ (@DailyAFC) August 31, 2019
There is still a sense that the pair operate as an island in the Gunners’ tactical construct. The addition of Nicolas Pepe ought to add a string to Arsenal’s attacking bow. Emery played Lacazette, Aubameyang and Pepe together for the first time against Tottenham. The manager tempered the adventurous attacking selection with a conservative midfield three.
Dani Ceballos dropped to the bench, while Mesut Özil was an unused substitute. The result was that Arsenal found it difficult to feed their strikers effectively – at least until Alex Lacazette’s outstanding individual goal just before half-time. It was Pepe that found the Frenchman and from there, the amount of effort Lacazette had to exert to get into a shooting position was significant. The goal was an individual feat, as opposed to a well-structured team goal.
However, it is worth acknowledging the unstable environment that has presided over Arsenal over the last three years. This is a quickly assembled squad with an enormous amount of churn in a compressed time frame. Lacazette and Aubameyang have emerged as seasoned figureheads, despite having arrived two years and eighteen months ago, both players are in the top ten for Arsenal appearances in the current squad.
Against this backdrop, it will take time for a new core to emerge, but there are encouraging signs. Most notably the performance of Matteo Guendouzi in the heart of the Arsenal midfield. His wonderful assist for Aubameyang’s equaliser put the seal on a coming of age performance. Emery’s reluctance to outright confirm Granit Xhaka as his captain makes me suspect that the coach wants to phase Xhaka out in favour of Guendouzi, whose contribution he seriously values. The Swiss’ costly error to hand Spurs their second goal from the penalty spot may have expedited that process.
Ian Wright On Matteo Guendouzi…
If you go to ground, win it. People in his team can learn that from him tbh.
I love the shots thrown at Xhaka
— The People’s Champion (@TroopzAFC) September 1, 2019
Dani Ceballos’ second half cameo as a substitute was one of vim and vigour, while Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s listless contribution from the bench may have sped his path out of the Emirates exit door if reports linking him to Roma are accurate. Lucas Torreira started a game for this first time this season after Joe Willock had impressed in his outings prior to the derby.
In short, a new core is forming around Lacazette and Aubameyang and one hopes that new heroes will emerge as the team begins to take shape. Tierney and Bellerin will change the face of the defence soon enough, while Saliba and Holding are earmarked as the future of the central defence in the seasons to come. However, the concern is that Emery’s penchant for tinkering might prolong the adaption process for some of the newer players. It is more difficult to slot into a team that is shapeless.
Good teams and good partnerships are largely due to muscle memory and instinct – knowing where your colleagues are going to be, or knowing exactly what your job is once the team loses possession. The Lacazette and Aubameyang partnership was not an instant success, it took time and a run of consecutive games to forge that understanding. Time will tell whether the coach can coax a unit around his two star turns.
