Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in numbers

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in numbers - how the Arsenal striker has already become a club legend

By Charlie Bennett

In just 88 appearances, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has already cracked the top ten of Arsenal’s Premier League goalscorers. 

He is the only player in the last 30 years to score twice in the FA Cup semi-finals and final in the same season. 

He is, simply, irreplaceable. 

An Arsenal off-season is rarely quiet and the club’s decision to make 55 staff redundant due to the impact of coronavirus and still invest in the squad is hardly positive PR. 

But the decision to hand Aubameyang a new three-deal contract that reportedly made him the club’s highest earner, surpassing Mesut Ozil’s £350k-a-week deal, is tough to argue with. 

At 31, he is at the peak of his powers and is coming off a season in which he scored 29 goals in 44 games for club and country. 

To put that into perspective, Arsenal scored 69 goals in games where Aubameyang featured. A whopping 42 per cent of them were his…

Indeed, only Thierry Henry, the Gunners’ record goalscorer, can better Aubameyang’s 0.64 goals per game ratio for Arsenal in the Premier League. 

And the legendary Frenchman is one of just three players (the others being Liverpool’s Mo Salah and Spurs’ Harry Kane) to have a better minutes per goal ratio than Aubameyang in league history. 

Mikel Arteta is still wading through the mess left to him by Unai Emery but has still stamped his mark on this squad. The likes of Lucas Torreira, Matteo Guendouzi and Mesut Ozil have all been jettisoned from the first-team. 

However, both men seem to agree Aubameyang needs to be front and centre for the Gunners. 

Prince Pierre

Henry’s stats may just outdo Aubameyang’s (for now) but the Frenchman benefitted from playing in an Arsenal side consistently competing for the top honours and alongside better players.

And although Aubameyang has featured in a Carabao Cup final, Europa League final and won the FA Cup, this Arsenal are still way off Wenger’s Invincibles.

Henry also benefitted from stability. In his eight-year Arsenal career, he played for just one manager. Aubameyang is still short of his third anniversary in north London and has already had four.

And yet, despite the strain of Wenger’s final months, frustration of Emery’s reign, chaos of Ljungberg’s and promise of Arteta’s, he’s scored 72 goals for Arsenal in all competitions since his Premier League debut. No other Premier League player has scored more.

Indeed, when he scored two against Norwich in July, he became the fastest Arsenal player to 50 Premier League goals – four games quicker than King Henry himself.
 

Man for the big occasion

It’s not as if Aubameyang is a flat-track bully, either. In 11 appearances against fellow ‘big six’ clubs last season, he scored seven times, including away at Manchester United and against Manchester City and Chelsea in the FA Cup. 

However, handing out such a mega contract to a 31-year-old may represent risky business. Indeed, Willian’s three-year deal was met with some scepticism and he’s just one year older than Auba. 

But in Arteta we trust and there is no sign of Aubameyang slowing down. 

In an unpredictable Premier League, few things are certain. One of them is Aubameyang scoring goals.

Photo credit: Getty Images

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