HAVING lost three of their first six games of the 2020-21 Premier League season, Arsenal’s trip to Old Trafford on Sunday, even at this early juncture of the campaign, has taken on a must-no-lose feel. And if the Gunners are to threaten Manchester United on their own patch, they’ll need their best player to recapture top form.

Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang’s outstanding scoring record since joining Arsenal from Borussia Dortmund in January 2018 – 73 goals in 116 games – was rewarded with a £250,000-a-week, three-year contract in September. But the Gabonese striker’s form has plummeted since, with his goalless streak in the league now stretching five games, his longest run without finding the net since 2014.

But Aubameyang’s present downturn should not be attributed to an absence of focus or motivation since securing his lucrative new deal; nor, necessarily, to early signs of decline in the 31-year-old’s trademark speed. Instead, his drought is a symptom of a lack of creativity that has beset Arsenal this term.

“He needs to get in more goalscoring opportunities,” manager Mikel Arteta recently appraised. “He needs to get the ball more around the box in order to do what he is able to do.”

Arteta does not seem to think a change of role is necessary for the Gabonese striker to rediscover his scoring tough, however.

 “The moment he does not score, he needs to play as a nine. If you play him as a nine, why don’t you keep him on the left because he has been so successful on the left?”

From the moment Arsenal completed the club-record £56m capture of Aubameyang, there were questions over how he could coexist with Alexandre Lacazette, the Gunners’ French striker and their previous record-signing. The answer, first struck upon by previous manager Unai Emery and replicated since by Arteta, was to start Aubameyang on the left wing.

Much of the former AC Milan and Saint-Etienne forward’s early career was spent as a wide player. But it was only when he began to be deployed centrally by Dortmund that he entered the echelon of Europe’s great forwards. With 141 goals in 213 games for BVB, he filled the void left by Robert Lewandowski’s departure for Bayern Munich and the subsequent inability of expensive recruits such as Ciro Immobile and Adrian Ramos to deliver.

A move back to the wing, then, seemed to take Aubameyang away from where he’d been thriving. But, for two and a half seasons, it worked. And while the goals have dried up of late – although he did register in a 2-1 Europa League victory over Rapid Wien last week – the underlying statistics suggest Aubameyang’s ruthlessness, to some extent, remains. His shot accuracy of 62 per cent, for example, has never been as high in the four years that FBref’s data for this statistic stretches back.

What is most alarming, though, is that Aubameyang has only taken eight total shots in six league games so far this season. His shots-per-game average, now 1.33, never previously dipped below 2.38 in his time with Arsenal, peaking at 2.94 in 2019-20. The total expected goals (xG) value of the scoring chances he has seen this season is just 0.8.

This reflects a dearth in chance-creation at Arsenal this term. Arteta’s side have scored just eight Premier League goals, and their average of 1.09 xG per game ranks 13th in the division, only marginally ahead of Fulham (1.07), Burnley (1.02) and Crystal Palace (1.02).

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Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has not scored in five league games for Arsenal – his worst run at the club pic.twitter.com/G2jEt0b8Tm

— Goal (@goal) October 25, 2020

With Aubameyang and Lacazette making up two thirds of Arsenal’s front line, the Gunners’ attack is comprised of two out-and-out scorers who do little to create chances for others. This wouldn’t be an issue were Arsenal conjuring opportunities from elsewhere to make up for the deficit, but Arteta’s preference this season for a 3-4-3 shape with two defensive-minded midfielders at its heart places greater reliance on the frontmen to carry the creative burden.

Meanwhile, Mesut Ozil, still Arsenal’s highest-paid player, has been cast out to the extent his primary use on matchdays of late has been live-tweeting.

Thomas Partey, a £45m deadline-day signing from Atletico Madrid, is yet to be integrated into a regular starting berth. But nothing about his stellar spell in Spain – where his highest single-season assists return was just four – suggests he’s the man to fuel the Aubameyang sufficiently.

Although it would be harsh on Lacazette, who has scored three Premier League goals from just four starts this season, maximising Aubameyang’s scoring potential might require putting him front and centre, with creative players to either side.

“Expectations for him are that he has to score a goal every game so this comes with the nature of the big player he is, what he has done in the past,” Arteta said. “People expect that from him in the future. He needs to handle that, and we are here to support him when difficult times come round him.”

If Arteta truly intends to support Aubameyang to return to form in front of goal, Arsenal’s best player needs to be deployed in his best position and serviced properly.