Two-goal Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang continues to attract admiring glances
There was more than a touch of Thierry Henry about Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s match-winning performance against Everton and there was more than a touch of how Henry used to be talked about in the way Mikel Arteta had to deal with questions about his captain afterwards.
Big European clubs are circling around Aubameyang, just as Barcelona eventually lured away Henry, and Arteta knows that Arsenal have a fight on their hands to keep another much-coveted forward. “Aubameyang is our most important player, no doubt the impact he has in this team,” the head coach said. “We will have to convince him to stay with us.”
Of the interest, which once again includes Barcelona, Arteta added: “They (other clubs) are completely right to want him because he is a superb player but hopefully we can convince him this is the right place for him.”
Qualifying for the Champions League would help and this result, which was perhaps a little fortunate, boosted Arsenal’s hopes of making an unlikely charge for the top four – or maybe the top five will be enough should Manchester City’s Uefa ban be confirmed. Even so Aubameyang has just one more year left on his contract at the end of this season and, at 30, it appears he has reached the pivotal moment in his career.
“He has big expectations because he wants to play in big tournaments,” Arteta conceded and that means the Champions League and not the Europa League or, as Arsenal feared for much of this campaign, not even qualifying for Europe.
There was another factor at play beyond the two goals that Aubameyang claimed which took him level, on 17, with Jamie Vardy at the top of the Premier League scoring chart, and that was his new-found work-rate. The captain’s armband has brought added responsibility and Aubameyang has embraced that – having answered a fundamental question that Arteta posed when he returned to the club in December. Would he be willing to work harder for the team?
“I had two questions,” Arteta said. “One: he doesn’t want to do it? Or he cannot do it? Once I found out he could do it, it was about convincing him…He could just say ‘I score the goals I don’t need to do it’. But unfortunately we are not good enough to do that.” That was in evidence as Everton chased the game and Aubameyang sprinted after substitute Moise Kean to dispossess him. In fact Aubameyang completed three tackles – more than any other player – with Arteta demanding more and more. Also in the second-half David Luiz fancied a go down the left-wing but was ordered back into position by the unrelenting Arteta.
The win made it three victories in a week for Arsenal, including the Europa League win away to Olympiakos, and tiredness was certainly a factor as Everton finished the strongest and rued missed chances by Dominic Calvert-Lewin while goalkeeper Bernd Leno also redeemed himself having been at fault for Richarlison’s goal on the stroke of half-time.
Both Everton goals came from set-pieces which for all the talk of Arteta improving Arsenal’s organisation has to be a concern while Carlo Ancelotti was furious at his side’s defending.
It felt like victory would be big for either side and Ancelotti spoke as if this was a missed opportunity for Everton who looked even more dangerous than Arsenal in attack but also even more vulnerable than them in defence.
If things had worked out differently it could well have been Ancelotti in the Arsenal dug-out and Arteta leading Everton. Either way the two managers – at opposite ends of the scale in terms of experience – have undoubtedly improved their teams.
Nevertheless they fell behind to a spectacular strike by Calvert-Lewin after David Luiz headed Gylfi Sigurdsson’s free-kick straight up into the air. As it dropped Calvert-Lewin reacted quickly with an overhead kick to beat Leno.
Arsenal’s equaliser gave an exciting glimpse of the future as 18-year-old Bukayo Saka – who had replaced Sead Kolasinac after he damaged a shoulder - delivered a brilliant left-wing cross with 20-year-old Eddie Nketiah jumping to guide a volley past Jordan Pickford for his first Premier League goal at the Emirates.
It confirmed that Arsenal had taken control and they took the lead when David Luiz stepped out of defence – as no other centre-half at the club can do – to measure a pass through to meet a clever run by Aubameyang who left Djibril Sidibe in his wake before sprinting goalwards and calmly curling the ball around Pickford. That, too, was a throwback to the kind of accomplished finish Henry made his own.
Still Arsenal’s demons returned with Sigurdsson miscuing a shot, after a clearing header from a corner fell to him, before Yerry Mina flicked the ball on and Richarlison threw himself to touch it past Leno who perhaps should have done better than let it trickle past him to draw Everton level.
Just as Everton had struck in the first minute of the first-half so Arsenal claimed the lead again – and decisively so – seconds after the re-start when Aubameyang smartly pulled away to reach Nicolas Pepe’s cross before stooping to head beyond Pickford. Ancelotti had barely taken his seat and looked stunned at how bad his team had defending. It also meant Aubameyang has now been involved in 38 goals – scoring 32 and assisting six – in 38 Premier League games on a Sunday.
Nketiah struck the cross-bar but the pressure came from Everton, who had the bonus of Andre Gomes returning as a second-half substitute just 112 days after his horrific ankle break, with Richarlison a constant threat. Still they missed chances and lacked the predatory instinct that makes Aubameyang so valuable.
