Things might be going wrong on the domestic front at the moment, but in the grand scheme of things, Mikel Arteta has transformed Arsenal during his tenure.
The former captain has taken a side that were ridiculed for being weak, easy to play through, and naive and has turned them into one of the toughest teams in the Premier League.
The North Londoners boasted the best defence in the competition last season and look likely to be the best in class again this year despite now being a distant second on points.
However, for all the improvements he’s made to the team, Arteta hasn’t been able to sign or develop a world-class centre-forward.
Worse yet, one of his former strikers is still going strong away from the Emirates and has even won comparisons to the sensational Alexander Isak.
Why Arsenal need a new nine
Now, the main reason Arsenal so desperately need a new number nine at this moment in time is the simple fact that, with Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus out injured, they don’t have a central striker.
However, the primary reason they’ll still need one when those two return is that neither one is prolific enough nor intimidating enough to lead the line of a title-challenging side.
For example, before his injury, Jesus had racked up a middling haul of seven goals and two assists in 27 games, and while Havertz had done far better with 15 goals and five assists in 34 games, that’s still not quite good enough.
Their main rival last season, Manchester City, have an inhuman bagsman leading the line in Erling Haaland, who, despite being accused of having an ‘off year’, has racked up 28 goals and four assists in 38 games this year.
Likewise, Mo Salah, who is Liverpool’s main goal threat, has put the ball in the back of the net 32 times in 41 games this season and provided 22 assists for good measure.
Even Newcastle United, who are fighting for a European place, have a superstar striker leading the line in Isak, who has a tally of 22 goals and five assists in 31 games.
With a record like that, it’s no surprise that the former Real Sociedad ace has been consistently touted for a move to Arsenal, but frustratingly, a forward who left the club under Arteta has now been compared to the Swede.
The ex-Arsenal star compared to Isak
So, when it comes down to a former Arsenal striker who left under Arteta and could feasibly be compared to Isak, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to find out the player in question is Pierre Emerick Aubameyang.
In his pomp, the Gabonese international, who Bukayo Saka once dubbed a “legend,” was a lean-mean-scoring machine for the Gunners, racking up a sensational haul of 92 goals and 20 assists in just 162 games and became the fastest player in the club’s history to reach 50 Premier League goals.
However, after losing form and falling out with the manager, he joined Barcelona for free in February 2022.
While he did reasonably well for six months, he joined Chelsea the following campaign, where he seriously struggled, and ended up joining Marseille just a year later.
Fortunately, he rediscovered his form in a big way on the French Riviera, and in just 51 appearances last season, he scored 30 goals and provided 11 assists, which earned him another move to Saudi Pro League side Al-Qadsiah, where he has racked up 13 goals and two assists in 23 games.
Over the last year or so, such an impressive revival has seen him likened to the unreal Isak.
The comparison stems from FBref, which looks at players in similar positions in Europe’s top five leagues, the Champions League and Europa League, then creates a list of the ten most comparable players for each one, and in this instance, has concluded that the Swedish star is the fifth most similar forward to the former Gunner across the last 365 days.
|
Aubameyang & Isak |
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|---|---|---|
|
Statistics per 90 |
Aubameyang |
Isak |
|
Non-Penalty Expected G+As |
0.79 |
0.77 |
|
Non-Penalty G+As |
0.72 |
0.72 |
|
Shots on Target |
1.61 |
1.44 |
|
Expected Assists |
0.15 |
0.11 |
|
Passes into the Penalty Area |
0.93 |
0.84 |
|
Goal-Creating Actions |
0.48 |
0.40 |
|
All Stats via FBref for the 23/24 League Season |
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Now this is based primarily on last season, and the best way to see where this comparison has come from is to look at the underlying metrics in which the pair ranked closely, including, but not limited to, actual and expected non-penalty goals plus assists, shots on target, expected assists, passes into the penalty area and more, all per 90.
Ultimately, hindsight is a wonderful thing, and Aubameyang probably had to leave the club for Arteta to carry on his project to bring Arsenal back to the top.
Still, we can’t help imagining how much better this team would be with someone like him leading the line.