Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has sent a message to New Arsenal Manager Unai Emery by claiming that both he and Alexandre Lacazette should be starting for Arsenal and the Gabon striker is even willing to play out of position to accommodate his team-mate.
Lacazette joined Arsenal to much fanfare in 2017 having developed into arguably Ligue 1’s most lethal finisher at Lyon, who were paid a reported £47million for him.
But, after an encouraging start, Lacazette struggled for form, scoring just four times in the Premier League between the start of November and April.
Aubameyang’s arrival in January was undoubtedly a contributor to Lacazette’s struggles, as the signing from Borussia Dortmund netted 10 times in just 13 league games in the second half of last season.
“We really get on well,” Aubameyang said of his relationship with Lacazette to ESPN. “There is a spark between us when we are both on the pitch together.
“We look for each other, we saw it [on Sunday] against City when he came on. I don’t mind playing on the left if Laca is in the centre. We both want to do our best for the team.”
Arsenal came in for significant criticism from some quarters for their performance against City, but Aubameyang is adamant that it is too early to really judge Unai Emery’s new-look Gunners.
“We still need some time to adapt to the new manager and to integrate the new players,” Aubameyang added.
“It is hard to test ourselves in a first game like this against City because they are so strong. We have to stay positive, work on the things we did well and improve on the rest. We will have a better idea next weekend after the Chelsea game.
“The message of the new coach is all about showing character, to put a lot of intensity, play high up the pitch and implement a big pressing. That’s the style we will play this season.”
Arsenal’s supporters will have known their new manager wanted to do things differently. What they perhaps could not have imagined was that he would start with Aaron Ramsey operating as a centre-forward, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on the right of the front three and Mesut Özil in a much more withdrawn role than usual.
Özil had swapped positions with Henrikh Mkhitaryan before half-time and, 10 minutes into the second half, Emery decided it was time to put an orthodox striker, Alexandre Lacazette, in Ramsey’s position. Other changes followed, yet none had any real effect. It all felt rather chaotic and jumbled and it was tempting to wonder whether the crowd would have been so understanding if Wenger had been responsible for these tactics. A new manager always gets a bit of leeway and, in this case, that is just as well.