World-Class Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang saves Arsenal yet again
Arsenal came from behind with 10 men to beat Aston Villa 3-2 on Sunday, with the superb Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang winning them the points, as usual.
For the most part, it was the same old story for Arsenal on Sunday, as they took on Aston Villa at home, looking to get their Premier League campaign back on track. Their first-half play was predictable and timid, as we are getting far too used to seeing, and Aston Villa took the lead through a clear defensive mistake from Arsenal, another regular occurrence, with the exceptional John McGinn scoring.
The Gunners then went down to 10 men on the stroke of half-time, with Ainsley Maitland-Niles picking up his 2nd yellow. At that point, all hope seemed lost for Arsenal and their fans, as the though of a 4th consecutive Premier League match without a victory surely seeped into the back of their minds.
Queue the 2nd half comeback, which was inspired by Matteo Guendouzi, supported by Joe Willock and Lucas Torreira, and of course, rounded off by the impeccable Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who seems to always find a way to drag his team out of tough positions, even when all hope seems lost.
Nicolas Pepe leveled the match through a penalty kick, and although Aston Villa went ahead just 1 minute later through Wesley, Calum Chambers scored late on to level it again, which set up the opportunity for Aubameyang to capture the headlines with a fabulous strike off a free-kick to win the match.
As mentioned earlier, it’s becoming almost tradition for Arsenal to salvage results through Aubameyang’s ability to score goals essentially out of thin air. It really does make you wonder where this team would be without him bringing his qualities to the table. Arsenal’s defensive fragility and one-dimensional midfield have them featuring in end-to-end matches even against the most modest of sides, but in these fixtures it’s usually Aubameyang or on occasion, Lacazette, who drag them to victories through sheer individual excellence.
Arsenal have been out-shot in 4 of their 6 Premier League matches this season, but still have a positive goal differential. That tells you almost all you need to know.
Aubameyang now has 6 goals in 6 Premier League matches, and is behind only Tammy Abraham (7) and Sergio Aguero (8) in the early golden boot race. The world-class Gabonese forward is proving to be invaluable to Unai Emery’s team, that relies upon his goalscoring prowess to hide their deficiencies a little too often.