This season started very much as expected for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
The Arsenal captain, who scored 29 goals in all competitions last season, wasted little time in opening his account for the new campaign with a well-taken finish in the opening-day win at Fulham.
Since then, however, Aubameyang has found league goals surprisingly elusive. For a player who managed to score 54 of them in his first 85 Premier League games, it is somewhat alarming for Arsenal fans that he has followed Fulham with five blanks on the bounce.
While a solitary goal reflects poorly on Aubameyang, the 31-year-old has not been afforded as many high-quality chances to improve his 2020/21 tally, as evidenced by his 0.53 expected goals per, according to understat . Indeed, the former Borussia Dortmund frontman’s xG per 90 stands at a paltry 0.09, down significantly from last season’s 0.47.
As highlighted by The xG Philosophy on Twitter, Aubameyang now finds himself trailing several defenders in the expected goals charts.
Using understat’s data, let’s run through nine defenders mentioned in that tweet (Kyle Bartley is down as 0.52 on understat).
Stuart Dallas (Leeds United) - 0.96
The Northern Ireland international has managed to replicate his excellent form in last season’s Championship during his first six weeks as a Premier League player.
Dallas, 29, has been a constant threat from left-back for Leeds, missing presentable chances against Manchester City and Aston Villa.
Dallas scored four times for Leeds last season. He shouldn’t have a problem reaching that figure provided he continues to take up promising positions in the opponent’s box.
Andrew Robertson (Liverpool) - 0.88
Robertson’s high placing on this list comes as little surprise given his attack-minded role in Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool system.
The Scot’s xG per 90 has increased to 0.15 from 0.05 last season with Robertson already opening his 2020/21 account with a well-taken goal against Arsenal.
He’s also registered two assists during a productive start to the new campaign.
Gabriel (Arsenal) - 0.77
While recruited to help shore up Arsenal’s defence, Gabriel has proven a major threat from set-pieces so far this season, marking his debut with a headed goal against Fulham.
Since then, the 23-year-old Brazilian passed up a presentable opportunity against Manchester City to add to that tally before failing with an attempted overhead kick in the defeat by Leicester City.
Lewis Dunk (Brighton & Hove Albion) - 0.64
While Dunk is yet to score for Brighton this season, he has found himself with the type of gilt-edged chance of which Aubameyang has been starved in recent weeks.
Dunk, who scored three times last season, missed a point-blank header against Chelsea and failed to find the target with a similarly promising chance in the draw with Crystal Palace.
Timothy Castagne (Leicester City) - 0.64
Castagne has made a significant impression at Leicester during first-choice right-back Ricardo Pereira’s absence through injury, notching a goal and two assists in his first three games after joining the Foxes from Atalanta.
While Castagne marked his debut with a goal, he failed to open the scoring against Aston Villa despite finding himself in a one-on-one with Emiliano Martinez. The miss proved costly as Villa won 1-0.
Cheikhou Kouyate (Crystal Palace) - 0.59
Kouyate scored his first goal of the season in Palace’s defeat by Everton having previously missed a golden opportunity against Southampton.
All three of Kouyate’s shots on target this season have come at the end of dead-ball situations, making the Senegal international one of the Eagles’ key threats at set-pieces.
Yerry Mina (Everton) - 0.58
Mina, who scored three goals for Colombia at the 2018 World Cup, has one goal to his name already this term, heading his compatriot James Rodriguez’s free-kick home during Everton’s 4-2 win over Brighton.
Mina, who was at fault for one of Liverpool’s goals in the Merseyside derby draw earlier this month, has played every minute of table-topping Everton’s league campaign so far after an injury-hit first two years in England.
Ian Poveda (Leeds) - 0.55
While the 20-year-old has been drafted into a more attacking role in his two most recent substitute appearances for Leeds, his first outing of the season was at right wing-back against Sheffield United.
During that derby clash at Bramall Lane, Poveda had two decent chances to open the scoring prior to Patrick Bamford’s winner, thus explaining his xG.
Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool) - 0.55
Another towering presence at set-pieces, Van Dijk scored in Liverpool’s opening-day win over Leeds and also upped his xG slightly with a speculative effort from distance against Arsenal.
The Dutchman will have to wait before improving his xG, of course, with the 29-year-old set for an extended spell on the sidelines with a cruciate ligament injury.
