They are not striking similarities as much as superficial ones. Chelsea’s Alvaro Morata and Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang are forwards who signed last season for club-record fees in the same bracket, £58 million and £56m. Neither, despite his fee and pedigree, is guaranteed to be leading the line in a few weeks’ time. And there, arguably, the common denominators end.
Elsewhere, they represent opposites. Aubameyang was the short-term recruit, the statement signing meant to prove Arsenal’s pulling power and stave off decline. Morata, three years his junior, promised more longevity and seemed to come with a greater resale value. Yet Aubameyang had the record to justify the fee, a proven goal scorer accustomed to being a major club’s top striker. Morata represented more of an unknown quantity: he had not been the main man in the forward line for an entire season at Juventus or Real Madrid, and by the time Olivier Giroud was the FA Cup final striker, he was not at Chelsea either.
The Spaniard had never scored more than 15 goals in a top-flight campaign. The Gabonese has topped that tally six times, with a personal best of 31. He mustered 23 last season, spread across two clubs in a stop-start campaign that still showed his predatory streak. The difference between Arsenal and Chelsea’s front men is at its starkest in 2018. Aubameyang has underlined that he represents a guarantee of goals by scoring 10 goals in 14 Premier League games. Morata has one in the calendar year.
The Arsenal man has a ridiculously good conversion rate, of 31 percent, in the division in 2018; his Chelsea counterpart, at just 4 percent, has a ludicrously bad one. In a way, it underlines strengths and shortcomings. Aubameyang’s game is based around pace and he has been swift to make an impact, even if it may be dangerous to rely on one who has turned 29 to retain his speed. Morata is more of an all-round striker, perhaps boasting every attribute except one: the mentality. His lack of confidence has been apparent in 2018.