Technical guile, skill, and perhaps best of all, potential longevity were all on display in Arsenal ’s sensational 3-0 victory over Southampton. Mikel Arteta’s side supplemented their fans with a performance oozing in confidence, ruthlessness, and footballing prestige.
The Emirates Stadium collectively hid behind their Gunners’ scarves when Adam Armstrong closed in on a dithering Aaron Ramsdale six yards out from goal. Eight passes and a thunderous finish from Alexandre Lacazette later, Arsenal were ahead, and the Emirates was erupting.
North London has not grown used to this over the last ten years, hence the evident anxiety and trepidation from the 60,000-capacity crowd. While it is hardly a prelude to a Premier League title challenge, it was certainly a positive sign for Arteta, who appears to have laid some strong building blocks to success.
However, Arteta has barely progressed past phase one of the very transfer plan Arsenal technical director Edu felt necessary to justify in front of Sky Sports cameras.
Ben White, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Martin Odegaard, Albert Sambi-Lokonga, Ramsdale, and Nuno Tavares’ arrivals in the summer have all glistened since their arrival into the capital during the summer transfer window.
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Unfortunately for Edu and Arteta, phase one of their strategies was likely relying on club captain Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang finishing the chances, those his junior created for him.
Not only was he not amongst the goals at the Emirates Stadium, he was also not even on the bench, as Arteta jettisoned him from the squad over yet another disciplinary breach.
Aubameyang will enter the final year of his contract at the end of the season yet reports from El Nacional are claiming his head has been turned by Barcelona.
Whether alleged interest from Xavi’s side amount to more than mere speculation is a matter for another day, but at 32-years-old and a monstrous £350,000 per week, the former Borussia Dortmund star is not the Arsenal future, in the same way as this summer’s arrivals.
The Gabonese hitman was a consistent world class presence under Arsene Wenger, Unai Emery, and Arteta’s time, despite the difficulty which has permeated through his Arsenal career.
His goals, his speed, and when he is on the pitch, his leadership will be extremely difficult to impress.
Not since Robin van Persie have Arsenal had such a prolific forward within their ranks, even if he has not covered himself in glory over the last couple of seasons.
While these summer’s signings, as well as the likes of Emile Smith-Rowe and Bukayo Saka, could one day be capable of driving title challenges, Arteta will likely need another world-class presence to replace the one who could leave the Gunners as early as January.
However, they cannot allow panic to dictate a decision to secure a monumental signing for the sake of doing so.
If Arsenal supporters were to deep into the deepest, darkest depths of their transfer memories, they would likely come across the £92m the Gunners bid for Thomas Lemar in the 2019 summer transfer window.
Inconceivably, Monaco turned Arsenal’s ludicrous advances down, and eventually sold him to Atletico Madrid for just over half the price the Gunners bid.
Lemar has started the La Liga campaign well, but he only played three minutes in Euro 2020 for France, and his general performances for Diego Simeone’s side have perhaps been enough to justify his modern day £52.5m transfer fee, but certainly not the world record bid Arsenal initially offered.
While the Gunners did manage to get away with that offer and keep their money, they endured no such luck with £72m arrival Nicolas Pepe.
The Ivorian was given his first Premier League minutes since the 30 th October, when he came on for a seven minute cameo in their 2-0 away victory over Leicester City.
Despite being purchased with the future in mind, he has been displaced by players, either purchased or promoted from the academy, with the future in mind.
Aubameyang is one of the few big money transfers who’s performances and goals have eclipsed his price tag.
Yet he was purchased after serious assessments, and with a track record of contributing 141 goals and 44 assists in 214 appearances for Dortmund.
And if Arsenal are not equally methodical and considered, if or when they decide to replace Aubameyang, then they could find their transfer kitty with a Pepe sized hole blown into it.
