When Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang ran on to a David Luiz pass early in the semi-final of Arsenal’s FA Cup clash with Manchester City, nearly every Gooner watching at home expected Ederson’s net to bulge to send Mikel Arteta’s men 1-0 up.
It didn’t quite pan out as imagined as the Gabon star shot straight at the Brazil goalkeeper in a manner that suggested an inexperienced forward rather than this year’s 20-goal Premier League marksman. Pictures showed Nicolas Pepe, hands on head, stood in disbelief at what he had just witnessed.
Indeed, the post-match narratives had the North London side lost were already being predicted; from criticism ranging from ‘bottling’ chances to perpetual ‘flat-track bully’ claims, the headlines were probably starting to write themselves.
What happened thereafter, though, was the Arsenal captain at his imperious best to score two well-taken goals in each half that stunned Pep Guardiola’s side and put the capital club on the brink of a 14th FA Cup.
The first was a great finish from an acute angle from a Pepe cross, while his second was finished superbly between the City stopper’s legs after a well-weighted Kieran Tierney through ball over the Citizens’ defence.
Nobody: Auba don’t Score against big Teams
— Aubameyang P-E (@Aubameyang7) July 18, 2020
Fofty:😆😂😂
Me: 😆😂😂😂😂😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/DcTvhQUVvT
2-0, job done and Auba was the hero at Wembley Stadium. The post-match statistics made for interesting reading: Arteta’s troops managed four attempts to City’s 16 and their top scorer managed three of them (centre-back Shkodran Mustafi accounted for the other).
Finishing two of his three efforts was nothing short of clinical, and the frontman responded to critics following the game, too, as he had the last laugh.
On Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s drought against the big sides: unlucky or ‘flat-track bully’? #AFC #ARSTOT https://t.co/RUqDNxgT0O
— Seye Omidiora (@theReal_SeyE) December 2, 2018
The criticism that the experienced striker only scores against the supposedly smaller sides has seemed to follow him since last season but is there any veracity to this claim?
Statistics show that 14 of the Arsenal skipper’s 20 Prem goals have come against teams currently in the bottom half of the league, which accounts for 70 percent of his return in the league.
In nine appearances against Liverpool, Man City, Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur this season, the Gabon international has netted just three times, with his last coming against the Blues in December. This, though, should take into cognizance that he got only 32 minutes against Jurgen Klopp’s side in last week’s 2-1 success and was introduced with his team solely focused on holding on to their lead.
Additionally, the fact Aubameyang has scored goals against Leicester City and Wolverhampton Wanderers, fourth and sixth in the table respectively, suggests the opprobrium may be a tad harsh.
Jamie Vardy, the league’s top scorer with 23, has netted on three occasions against the division’s top teams as well, with further strikes coming against new boys Sheffield United and Burnley in ninth. 18 of the Englishman’s 23 strikes have come against teams from 11th to 20th in the standings, a staggering 78 percent compared to Auba’s 70 percent.
Liverpool pair of Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane’s goal returns also present interesting quirks.
The two-time Golden Boot winner has scored five times against the traditional top six sides (including a brace against Arsenal in August) while the current African POTY has hit the back of the net only twice against the big six, numbers that put the Arsenal star’s three strikes in perspective.
Taking it further, only two of Harry Kane’s 17 Premier League goals this season have come against the established teams, although he has scored four times against sides in the top half, including an impressive brace against Leicester on Sunday.
Given the aforementioned forwards’ similar returns against the top teams, why then is Auba singled out as the flat-track bully among the lot?
In fairness, on goalscoring numbers alone, it is a ridiculous claim, but maybe the Arsenal man’s style has contributed to the simplistic presentation of facts.
Given he’s somewhat limited in possession and is seldom involved in the team’s build-up, observers tend to narrow-down his contribution to what he does in front of goal alone.
Vardy, stylistically similar to the Gunners captain, has assisted five goals to Aubameyang’s two. The ex-England international has also created 12 big chances to the Arsenal man’s seven, numbers that immediately indicate the 2015 African POTY’s lack of involvement for the 2019 Europa League finalists.
Expectedly, Salah and Mane have more assists (nine and seven) and have created more clear-cut chances (13 and 10) respectively, but Kane’s two assists and four big chances fashioned out pales to the Gabon striker’s. However, the two-time Golden Boot winner is more involved in Spurs’ moves evidenced by his heatmap this term, while he has also been lauded for being multifaceted.
Auba’s weaknesses mean he does little when he isn’t scoring, which probably leads to the criticism that he contributes nothing in the big games. Arsenal, especially away from home, have little of the ball in these games, too, which only highlights their captain’s anonymity when they play the traditional top clubs.
Case in point is the City game on Saturday where he was unsuccessful in all eight duels, completed none of his attempted dribbles and lost possession more often than Alexander Lacazette and Pepe, who edged him in all three metrics.
Crucially, he had three more attempts than the pair managed combined, scoring twice, and both can’t match his deadly predatory instinct in the final third.
Indeed, the Arsenal captain has been more efficient this season than in recent years at Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund. He’s surprisingly missed only nine big chances this term, a significant reduction to last year’s 23 and the year before (six in 13 games in the Prem and 19 in 13 matches at Dortmund). In his last full season at Die Borussen, the Gabon star failed to tuck away 25 presentable opportunities, despite ending top scorer with 31 strikes, one ahead of the equally prolific Robert Lewandowski.
This newly found effectiveness has benefited the three-time Premier League champions but whether it is an outlier or deviation from the norm remains to be seen.
A more clinical Aubameyang is an assassin in every sporting sense of the word, and bringing home Arsenal’s 14th FA Cup title in the club’s next ‘big game’ against Chelsea will further banish the perception that he preys exclusively on weak opposition.