Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has once more suggested that he could be tempted to deploy record signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on the flanks as he looks to fit the Gabon striker and Alexandre Lacazette into one team.
Aubameyang has hit the ground running since joining Arsenal from Borussia Dortmund in January for £56million, scoring five goals in his first six Premier League games.
However the return of Lacazette, the one-time record buy who joined from Lyon in the summer, from knee surgery has left Wenger facing something of a selection headache that is only slightly eased by Aubameyang’s ineligibility for the Europa League.
In the first top flight game the pair have played together, a 3-0 win over Stoke, Aubameyang was shifted out to the left flank when Lacazette came on as a 61st minute substitute. The move paid dividends as the Gabon striker caused chaos cutting infield and it is an approach that Wenger hinted he could repeat again.
Aubameyang began his career as a winger but at Dortmund established himself as one of world football’s most formidable strikers, scoring 100 goals in 119 games over his last two-and-a-half years at the German club.
“He is very good at running in behind defenders, and on the flanks there is a bit more room for that,” Wenger said of Aubameyang. “He has a huge physical potential and on the flanks he can express that much more than he can in the middle, going up and down.
“He has that capacity to repeat at high intensity, and that’s why I think when he plays on the left it suits him well.
“Also when you play on the left you can come inside and shoot with your right foot, and he loves to do that.”
In Sunday’s convincing victory at the Emirates Aubameyang and Lacazette showed signs of a burgeoning partnership in their first appearance together since mid-February.
Most significantly Aubameyang turned down a possible hat-trick to hand spot kick duties to Lacazette for Arsenal’s third.
“He is different player, he loves the space and I'm a player who loves to get the ball to my feet,” said Lacazette. “I think we can be good together.
“Auba is a nice guy and, after the first penalty, he told me, 'If there is another one I will give you the ball', so it was nice from him. It was good for my confidence.
“It shows that, even if we are strikers, we can think about everyone in the team and we are not focused only to score goals.”
via Evening Standard
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