Arsenal’s failure to find the back of the net in Monday night’s 2-0 defeat away to Newcastle United has inevitably led to questions about whether Mikel Arteta was right to allow key forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to leave in February.
Monday night’s defeat could prove fatal for Arsenal ’s chances of qualifying for Champions League. They now must beat Everton on the final day of the season and hope Tottenham lose at Norwich if they are to pip their rivals
Aubameyang made his last Arsenal appearance in December and was allowed to join Barcelona following a disciplinary breach. Although Arsenal fans seemed content with Mikel Arteta’s decision to let the 32-year-old leave at the time, there are now questions about whether that was the right call, particularly due to how tight the race for the top four has been this season with small margins proving decisive.
Issues up top have been an ongoing problem for Arteta, highlighted by the fact the Gunners have failed to score in each of their last two matches. They’ve also scored the fewest number of goals for any side inside the top seven.
While Arsenal have too often looked toothless in attack, it’s been a different story for Aubameyang since his move. He’s bagged 11 league goals in just 16 appearances, making him Barcelona’s second-highest league scorer behind only Memphis Depay.
Despite the goals he scored in Spain, it’s still hard to create a compelling case that Arsenal should have kept the forward when we drill into some of the underlying numbers. In the Premier League this season, excluding a six-minute cameo against Everton, Aubameyang featured in 13 Arsenal matches but scored just four goals.
With him on the pitch, Arsenal as a team averaged 1.38 goals per match. Yet interestingly in the eight Premier League matches without him before his departure, the Gunners actually averaged two goals per game.
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Needless to say in a team game like football, it’s not right to attribute all of a team’s success or indeed failure to one player alone. However, when you combine this with some of the differences in how Barcelona are performing compared to Arsenal, then it becomes clear as to why the Gabon international has been enjoying more success in Camp Nou than he was at the Emirates.
Throughout this season, Barcelona have massively improved under Xavi and are now much more recognisable in terms of style and philosophy. A trait of Xavi’s side, like many great Barcelona teams in the past, is creating high-quality chances on a regular basis, something that directly benefits their forwards, like Aubameyang.
It’s telling that according to Fbref, Aubameyang is now being presented with more shots on average (3.07 per 90) at Barcelona than he was at Arsenal (2.86 per 90). Most importantly, those shots tend to be from a much closer distance to goal - 10.9 yd at Barcelona vs 14.2 yd at Arsenal.
Given that Aubameyang is taking more shots per game, and from a closer distance, it’s easy to see why he’s scoring more goals.
There’s a small chance that he could have been a difference-maker for Arsenal across these past few months, however it’s probably more accurate to say based on the above that he’d have made very little difference. Especially when you also consider the fractured relationship he had with Arteta.
The Arsenal boss will look back on this season and undoubtedly reflect on different decisions he’ll now regret, however letting Aubameyang leave should not be one of them.
