Arsenal will be “concerned” at Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s lack of goals, admits Nigel Winterburn, but the Gabonese striker’s struggles are not considered to be a “major shock” as the Gunners are failing to create as a collective.
Struggles in the final third are proving to be a major stumbling block for Mikel Arteta’s side at present.
Inability to carve opponents open has contributed to the Gunners making their worst start to a season in 39 years.
Aubameyang was supposed to be the man that prevented such a slump from happening, with the 31-year-old having been a prolific presence throughout his career to date.
He has, however, failed to sparkle on the back of signing a lucrative new contract, with the target found just four times through 12 appearances across all competitions – with only two of those efforts coming in the Premier League.
Winterburn admits that Arsenal need to find a way of bringing the best out of their captain, with positional tinkering clearly not working, with it up to everybody at Emirates Stadium to start pulling in the same direction.
“We are concerned because he’s a player that's always scored goals for Arsenal. Whether he was playing at centre-forward or the wing,” former Gunners defender Winterburn told FreeSuperTips of Aubameyang.
“When things started to go wrong, we thought it was time to move him into the middle, but that is not where he has scored most of his goals for Arsenal. A lot of his goals came from the left-hand side.
“It's all about confidence. It’s all about the chances you create and the chances that your team-mates provide for you.
“It's not a major shock that Aubameyang is struggling to score goals because we're not creating enough chances within the game.
“The Wolves game was slightly different. Arsenal got into the final third a lot more, but the quality of the final passes across just wasn’t good enough.
“If you continue to do that than anybody that's playing upfront for Arsenal is going to struggle to score goals consistently.
“If you ask strikers, they’ll tell you that when they’re super confident, they score goals. Instinctively they’ll move into the right positions, the ball falls for them and they score.
“When out of form and not scoring, strikers will overstretch for chances or delay before taking an opportunity, then the opportunity is gone. It’s very worrying for the team for this to be the case, but that’s what Arsenal have to deal with at the moment.”
The Gunners will be back in Europa League action on Thursday against Rapid Vienna, before then returning to a Premier League stage in a north London derby date with arch-rivals Tottenham on Sunday.