Mikel Arteta has hit back at suggestions Pierre-Emerick Aubayemang should be playing a more central role and says the responsibility to score goals falls on the team, not just their star striker.
The Gunners' captain failed to manage a single shot on goal during the 3-0 defeat to Aston Villa on Sunday, and has scored just twice in the Premier League in eight matches this season.
It was the first time Aubameyang had not registered an attempt in a home league fixture in his Arsenal career, adding further weight to claims he should be moved inside from his current left-hand berth.
But Arteta has dismissed that idea, pointing to Aubameyang's good form in that role at the end of last season.
"A team function is a collective thing that we have to do more," Arteta said after the Villa defeat.
"We certainly are getting in some situations, but the end product is something we have to improve and about the position and his movement and where we can find him, of course we can talk about is this the right or wrong place for him, but when things were working and he was scoring that debate wasn’t there.
"What is certain is that with these numbers, scoring this amount of goals is impossible to fight with the top teams so we have to maintain the numbers that we have defensively in our organisation and for sure we have to improve our numbers attacking-wise if we want to be challenging and if you want to be consistent in winning football matches."
Strangely, despite insisting Aubameyang's lack of goals was not down to his positioning, Arteta conceded he may have to consider altering Arsenal's system in order to boost their output in front of goal.
Asked whether that was something he was thinking about going into the international break, Arteta replied: "Yes, for sure. We do that every week.
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"You know, [look at] how we can get into better positions in the final third, with certain numbers in the positions that have to be occupied all the time.
"The same for how we control the transition moments after not finishing that action when the ball leaves that box.
"Certainly, as you said, we will look at that again and try to modify certain things to try and get better like we always do."
