Unai Emery must solve Aubameyang-Özil riddle if he's to truly transform Arsenal

As with Arsene Wenger before him, the Spaniard is struggling to bring cohesion to Arsenal's attacking quartet

After four consecutive league wins and a first clean sheet, the initial gloom birthed by Arsenal’s opening defeats to Manchester City and Chelsea has been replaced with youthful promise.

The fans once rendered sleepless by Nicklas Bendtner and Marouane Chamakh are able to revel in the dream of reclaiming top-four status once more. But despite the rousing upturn, Unai Emery is still struggling to harvest a rich yield from what should be one of the Premier League’s most prolific attacking quartets.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang proved he has no trouble accelerating down the right-hand side after he was caught clocking 99mph in his metallic Lamborghini on the M1, but Arsenal’s record-signing is struggling to adjust to life in the left lane.

Aubameyang did snatch a fortuitous tap-in last Sunday but his average of 21 passes per game is the lowest of any player who started on the wing for a top-six club last weekend, nor has the Gabonese international crafted a single clear-cut opportunity this season.

Arsene Wenger consistently strained to incorporate both Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette into the Arsenal team last season because, once either was thrust out wide, they would languish in the peripheries for the majority of entire matches. And for all Emery’s intensive perusal of match footage, he too is struggling with the same conundrum.

Evidently slowing down at 29, evolution dictates that Aubameyang should be transitioning into a role as an out-and-out poacher - even in his prime at Dortmund only one of his 98 goals came from outside the box. But Lacazette has returned with added verve under Emery, showing form that the manager may well have doubted he even possessed based on last season’s film.

Lacazette’s touch is less bumbling, his finishing fine-tuned and, most importantly of all, his robust nibbling presence is better tailored to Emery’s pressing style so instead it’s Aubameyang who has been shunted into the unproductive doldrums.

Mesut Özil, too, has fallen foul of the pressing regime. Replaced by Aaron Ramsey as Arsenal’s attacking fulcrum due to his apathetic defending, the German now occupies a nondescript role on the right of midfield.

It’s easier to sensationalise Özil’s loss of form as a consequence of the disconcerting World Cup aftermath, but he’s never been a force outside of his floating playmaker role at Arsenal. In fact, out wide Özil is more like a bobbing dinghy who’s overwhelmed by the fast-moving current around him.

Aubameyang appears dejected after missing a chance for Arsenal (Reuters)

Compared to 70 passes per game last season, he averages only 36 this term and has failed to contribute a single assist. If the temperamental German isn’t the team’s creative totem, well, what does he actually do?

Özil and Aubameyang’s innate desire to drift inwards also exposed Arsenal’s frail defence against Everton. With Arsenal’s formation virtually indecipherable for much of the game, Richarlison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin continuously exploited the gaps left on either flank. And if it weren’t for Everton’s reckless finishing and Petr Cech’s standout performance, things at the Emirates could easily have regressed into a nightmare once more.

Emery will persist with the provisionally winning formula, but for how long can Arsenal maintain a resurgence when their two best players are rendered impotent? The Spaniard’s crazed theatrics on the touchline may be a welcome antithesis to Wenger’s distant approach, but it’s whether Emery can go one further and forge a cohesion between the quartet which will ultimately determine if he is indeed a worthy successor. Fail to do so and a return to the Champion’s League remains make-believe.