The transition phase of Arsenal has been up running after the long era of Arsène Wenger, which came to an end last season. The arrival of Unai Emery meant the Gunners were looking for someone who could hold the core values of the club and swiftly make the transition of the football club into their stride. And one thing the new boss has to take into account is the selection of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette.
With two defeats in his first two games for the North London outfit, pressure seems to be mounting on Emery with every passing minute.
Although people have been defending the Spaniard, claiming that he would be need time to adapt to Premier League, he has to get his first team combination right to stay in contention for the top four spots. One such combination that Arsenal fans have been crying for is the partnership of Aubameyang and Lacazette.
Wenger bought the duo of Aubameyang and Lacazette for an sum just over £100 million but his successor has been struggling to accommodate both of these prolific strikers together in the first team.
Although there were instances in the first two games against Manchester City and Chelsea, where the pair spent few minutes together on the pitch but it looks like the gaffer needs some more time to get this worked out properly.
Lucas Torreira.
Keep trying to tell y'all that boy is the truth. He needs to be one of the first names on the team sheet.
AND START LACA + AUBA COTTDAMMIT
— Aaron West (@oeste) August 18, 2018
The Gabonese international, who is the fastest Arsenal player to reach the 10 goal mark in the history of the club, has been observed to move on to the left wing in some instances when his fellow striker was introduced during the pre-season games.
And after the 2-0 disaster against champions City, the former Borussia Dortmund man has shown his willingness to partner with the Frenchman. Moreover, he also mentioned that he would be open to playing on the left flank to accommodate the French international in the number 9 position.
“We really get on well,” the Gabonsese international said [via AS].
“There is a spark between us when we are both on the pitch together. We look for each other, we saw it today [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.”
It is quite clear that Emery will be changing the system at the Emirates. He could do this by using a 4-3-1-2 formation playing Mesut Ozil in the No.10 role and the duo of Lacazette and Aubameyang through the centre.
Where he could split the strikers during the goal kicks and get Ozil up the pitch. He could use the trio of Aaron Ramsey, Lucas Torreira and Mattéo Guendouzi in the middle of the pitch. Henrikh Mkhitaryan could be used as a back up No.10 for Mesut Ozil.
The Frenchman was under the shade of Aubameyang who arrived in the second half of the season and has had a fairly impressive season the Londoners.
Why is Emery so scared of the Laca + Auba combo?
— Telo (@TPound_) August 18, 2018
It seems to be something of a waste to have two of the best goalscorers in Europe in the same team and yet playing them rarely together. Ahead of the clash against Chelsea Emery had been vocal about the possibility of playing both these strikers together.
“The possibility to play Aubameyang and Lacazette is okay because we tried that in pre-season and also last year they played together,” said Arsenal’s head coach.
It was clearly visible that Arsenal are way behind the likes of City and for them to get back to the top four spots, they need to find an edge and this duo could be that very edge which could be used to rebound Emery’s men into the top four this season.
