Arsenal have picked up wins in their last three Premier League matches and all of a sudden, their performance graph is showing an upward trend.
The Gunners have suffered eight losses in the league already this season but the introduction of Emile Smith Rowe in the attacking midfielder’s role seems to have nullified a lot of problems for Mikel Arteta(for the time being).
Smith Rowe has been wonderful for Arsenal, so much so that the Gunners might not even look to sign a new attacking midfielder during the January transfer window. But according to Ian Wright, the meteoric rise of the youngster has handed Arteta a new dilemma.
“All of a sudden Arsenal got a link between midfield and the front and there’s something happening in respects of not just counter-attacking, but you can build,” Wright said as quoted.
“That’s what’s happened it’s the energy and the quickness of thought of someone like Emile Smith Rowe who wants to create and get into the box.
“You’ve seen Lacazette now with someone like Smith Rowe behind him he looks like a different player, something like four or five goals now he’s got simply because of the way Arsenal can play.
“That is what Arteta has to sort out now, is he going to play Aubameyang or Martinelli? The common denominator is Smith Rowe electrifying everything, so now in that last third of the pitch there is now a capability of creating something.”
Aubameyang is undoubtedly the star player in the Arsenal squad and over the years, the Gabon international has been carrying all the goalscoring burden on his shoulders.
But this season, he’s seen a sharp dip in form and at this exact time, Gabriel Martinelli is progressing in leaps and bounds.
There’s no doubt Aubameyang will keep his place in the starting XI during the remainder of the season even if he cannot reach his peak. But if Martinelli keeps performing with the same enthusiasm then Mikel Arteta will surely have to take a call during the summer transfer window.
Aubameyang signed a new deal at the club in September so there’s no way Arsenal will want to sell him at the end of the season but at the same time, there’s no denying that Arteta might gradually look to phase him out of the starting line-up over the course of the current year.
